Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

The government's target for suicide is zero per cent. The idea that 75 per cent, or over 2,200 deaths per year, is acceptable is simply not acceptable to the government. The Minister for Health and the government have elevated mental health to be one of the four fundamental pillars of the long-term National Health Plan. Both the minister and the government regard mental health as inseparable and a central part of the Health portfolio and would regard such a separation as both a downgrade of mental health and a potentially damaging separation of mental health from physical health.