Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I obviously completely and utterly reject the premise of the comments that Senator Watt just said. That this government would be prioritising anything over what is tremendously important, dealing with the fallout and impact on the mental health of Australians who have been impacted by bushfires. Is an outrageous comment. We are absolutely committed to supporting, particularly our emergency service workers, who spent many, many, many weeks—many more weeks than we've ever seen before—out fighting fires. The impact on the mental health of those emergency workers—the post-traumatic stress disorders, the mental illnesses and sadly in some cases the suicides—is something that this government takes very, very seriously. And we remain absolutely committed to helping these people over the longer term, making sure that they have the support that they need.

Senator Watt interjecting—

Senator Watt, as you would well know—