Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise to take note of the government response to an important Senate inquiry that was conducted by the Education and Employment References Committee into the mental health needs of our first responders. What we're talking about here is our emergency services workers—police, firefighters, ambulance officers and a range of other first responders. This inquiry was launched in March 2018, and it addressed the high rates of mental health conditions experienced by first responders. I want to pay tribute to all senators who took part in this inquiry, in particular Senators Urquhart, Bilyk and O'Neill.

A 2018 survey of more than 21,000 police, firefighters, ambulance officers and SES personnel found that 10 per cent were likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder—more than double the average for non-first responders—and one in three had experienced high or very high psychological distress. First responders also reported having suicidal thoughts at two times the rate of the general adult population. It's not surprising when you think about the kinds of scenes that confront our first responders. Whether they be bushfires, domestic violence incidents or traffic accidents, they are obviously high-trauma situations that, understandably, also cause trauma to those who attend to assist those who are affected. The reality is that people involved in disaster management and on the frontlines across the country need specialised support to help cope with what they see. Those who are sent out to an emergency or a traumatic situation unprepared or who are hurt, or who see their mates hurt, in the line of duty need appropriate access to help. That was the motivation for the inquiry, and it made some excellent recommendations, which I'll come to in a tick.

One of the things that has been disappointing is that we have only received this government response today, more than 12 months since the report was handed down by the Senate committee. One can only assume that we've received this response today because last sitting week Labor senators lodged a motion demanding the response. It's customary in this place—and I think there are standing orders to this effect—that a government response to a Senate inquiry will be tabled within three months. Yet, here we are: it's taken 12 months and it's taken a motion lodged and passed by the Senate before this government bothered to deliver a response to an inquiry that looked into the mental health needs of our first responders. That is extremely disappointing, and it's yet another example of what we continue to see from this Morrison government: it's slow to react and it does nothing. It is a do-nothing government, whether we're talking about the economy, about health care or about bushfire preparation and, now, when it comes to taking issues of the mental health of our first responders seriously.

I think that forcing our first responders to wait more than 12 months to receive a government response—we haven't even got to the point yet of the government taking action to deliver on these recommendations—shows the blatant disrespect that this government has for people on the frontline. And we've seen a lot of that lately from this government—in particular, from the Prime Minister. Of course, we've just been through a horrific bushfire season where we saw first responders out there serving their nation, serving their communities and really putting their own interests below those of other people. What did we see from the Prime Minister throughout that whole period? We saw disrespect and we saw him going missing in action and making all sorts of offensive remarks. Can you remember his refusal to pay volunteer firefighters for day after day, week after week? No matter what Labor asked for, no matter what firefighters themselves asked for, no matter what bushfire affected communities asked for, the Prime Minister always had an excuse for why we shouldn't pay volunteer firefighters. He had to be dragged kicking and screaming into finally agreeing to do it. There were those infamous comments to try to excuse his absence during the worst of the bushfires when he said, 'I don't hold a hose, mate.' That's the kind of respect that he holds our first responders in. We've seen it reflected in the government's tardy response to this inquiry.

The events of this summer show why this inquiry was needed and why action is needed now. As I say, instead, as we see so often from this government, the government did nothing. This report was just shoved in the bottom drawer and ignored until a Senate motion required the government to finally respond. Again, it's another example of what we see from this Prime Minister and what we see from his government. He makes all sorts of promises, there's all sorts of marketing and there's all sorts of spin, but there's never any action to follow through and help people. He says that he cares about our first responders, he says that he cares about our emergency services workers, but here we have a Senate report that asked the government to do something about the mental health needs of our first responders and it was ignored and shelved for 12 months. This Prime Minister is simply about marketing and saying one thing and doing another.

Just turning briefly to the government response, the report itself made 14 recommendations, including a range of things that the Commonwealth government could do to assist our first responders. I won't go through them all, but they include things like designing and implementing a national action plan on first responder mental health, introducing compulsory training around mental health for first responders, establishing a national register of health professionals who specialise in first responder mental health and other things—good, practical steps that were put forward by a bipartisan committee that could actually help our first responders.

Having had a quick look at this government response which has been tabled today, again, it's profoundly disappointing. It's disappointing that the government refused to respond. When you look at what they're now saying after having this report for 12 months it's also incredibly disappointing. What we see from this response is simply in-principle support for a number of the recommendations. So it's actually taken 12 months for the government to even just say that they in-principle support things. There's nothing about what they're going to do, nothing about firm commitments, nothing about firm support and nothing about dollars on the table or changes to procedures; there's just in-principle support. In fact, all of the recommendations that required the Commonwealth to do something have only ever been supported in principle or, even worse, 'noted'.

What an offensive way to treat this Senate report but also our first responders. These are things that will actually make a difference to people's lives. In some cases, they might actually keep people alive. All the government can do after sitting on this report for 12 months is say: 'Thanks very much. Noted.' It is incredibly offensive and incredibly disrespectful. Again, it's just more marketing and more spin about caring about these issues that's not backed up by action.

If you read this report you will see something that we've also seen a fair bit over the summer from the Prime Minister—the old shifting of blame to other people. There are lots of comments in this government response about how some things have to be done by the states and territories and some things have to be done by another organisation. It's always someone else's responsibility with this Prime Minister and his government. He never wants to step up and take responsibility to fix the situation when there's someone else out there that he can blame or throw under the bus. The New South Wales Premier knows a fair bit about that. So, yet again, we're seeing this blame-shifting attitude from the Prime Minister. Again, we see that the government is keen to talk about its mental health support given to first responders during bushfires, but clearly from this report we see that more needs to be done and the government is not taking action.

In conclusion, this government response that we've finally received today is profoundly disappointing. Our first responders to bushfires, other natural disasters and other traumatic incidents deserve all of our support in this chamber. They deserve our respect, they deserve our support, and they deserve action. Instead, what they've got from this government is disrespect—a report that's been shelved for 12 months and now a response that basically says nothing and does nothing. It's a continuation of this do-nothing government that's all about marketing and all about leaving people out to dry. I really do hope that the government reflects on this response over the next 12 months and that we actually see some action.