Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about a particular illness that afflicts many Australians. I am aware that senators and members are frequently asked to be advocates for particular illnesses and conditions; barely a week goes by in this place when we do not festoon ourselves with ribbons or buttons dedicating our support for some particular program or another dealing with an illness. But I want to advocate for senators in this place to be interested in this particular illness not because it needs another ribbon or badge to be worn around the building but because the treatment, and even the cure, for this illness depends upon our level of engagement as members of our society; indeed, the level of engagement of all Australians will govern and regulate the extent to which we beat this illness. I am talking, of course, about mental illness.

At its most extreme, mental illness manifests itself in very harmful ways. There are something like 2,200 suicides each year in Australia—and, as the recent community affairs committee report on suicide indicated, that is probably a serious underestimation. Men are around three times more likely than females to die by suicide. For each person who takes their own life, another 30 people attempt to end their own life. Suicide is the leading cause of death for people in the 15 to 24 years age group, with 23.3 per cent of deaths in that age group being from suicide—more than car accidents, drugs, poisoning or cancer. An alarming 49 per cent of all teenagers have thought about suicide at some time. Depression is an illness which afflicts one in five Australians personally over the course of their lives—one in four females and one in six males.

I raise this matter because on Thursday this week we will mark in this place National R U OK? Day. This day was inspired—if inspired is the right word—by the death back in 1995 of a very successful business management consultant by the name of Barry Larkin. He was a man who appeared to be on top of the world, successful, going places—and suddenly he was no longer there. His son, Gavin Larkin, partnered with a television producer, Janina Nearn, in 2008 to develop a campaign to remind Australians that responsibility for preventing these sorts of tragic losses of life does fall to some extent to the people around those who are affected by depression or other forms of mental illness.

If I contract cancer, heart disease, diabetes or a disease of that kind—which I hope I do not and no-one here does—the course of that illness is a matter between me and my medical advisers. But if I contract a mental illness the course of my treatment and care depends very much on the people around me. I may not be able to self-diagnose or seek support or treatment from my medical advisers. I will need support to be able to cope with the illness. And, particularly if I am affected by the illness in such a way as to leave me in a state of depression, I will need the support of people around me to make sure that I am looking after myself and am not bedevilled by what Winston Churchill called 'the Black Dog'. That kind of intervention by people around me is very important. So we all have a responsibility to each other. Suicide inspired by depression or mental illness is not a disease or a condition which is exclusive to people who might be regarded as loners or people on the fringes of our society. Suicide and attempted suicide has affected even members of this parliament. Anybody might be subject to depression and therefore we all have a responsibility to keep an eye out for people who might be affected by it.

Next Thursday—Thursday of this week—is, as I said, national R U OK? Day. The first R U OK? Day was launched by the then Australian health minister, Nicola Roxon, in 2009, and after only three years it has become a widely recognised occasion for Australians to think about the way in which they can actively assist those around them who are affected by depression and mental illness.

There are a lot of organisations which people can turn to today for assistance in all sorts of situations where this problem arises. The R U OK? program, for example, builds on research and clinical expertise to provide people with the skills they need to deal with stress in the workplace, particularly employers: how to identify it, how to cope with it and how to offer support. Lifeline is an organisation well known, I am sure, to every member of this place for the sterling support they offer on a 24-hour basis through professional counselling to people who need support. It is impossible to measure the number of lives which that organisation has saved over many years.

The Black Dog Institute has developed the Black Dog Index, which aims to calculate our level of happiness and to put a tally on how many of us are living with depression. ReachOut is an online youth mental health service which provides young Australians with information, support and motivation to get through the really tough times. SANE Australia conducts innovative programs and campaigns to help improve the lives of people living with a mental illness. It has worked closely, in particular, with the Parliamentary Friends of Mental Illness, of which Amanda Rishworth is, with me, the co-convenor.

Headspace, of course, is a very important organisation, focusing particularly on youth mental illness. It has made enormous strides in connecting with people who are vulnerable in that age group. And, of course, beyondblue provides a measure of national leadership and focus on preventing depression and getting people to talk about these issues.

If we see a colleague hobble into the workplace with a leg in a cast we want to know what happened. How did he break his leg? What can we do to help? Does he need help getting lunch, or whatever it might be. If we hear of a colleague who is depressed, who is stressed and who has isolated themselves from the rest of their workmates or whatever, we will as often as not avoid that person and not try to engage with that person—steer clear of them as if it is best not to talk to them about what is affecting them when, in fact, precisely the opposite may be what they need to get around that problem. So we need to accept a sense of collective responsibility here, and national R U OK? Day helps us to do that.

Personally, I am very proud that there are plans on the horizon to do other things to assist Australians to cope with the enormous burden of mental illness. And when I say 'enormous', it has been calculated that mental disorders and suicide account for 14.2 per cent of Australia's total health burden. That is the equivalent of 374,541 years—years—of healthy life lost to the nation. Annually it is a cost of $14.9 billion, leading to more than six million working days lost each year. So it is a productivity issue as well as a health issue.

As I have said, we can advocate and support, in an in-principle sense, action on tackling other health problems that afflict the nation, but we can take a personal responsibility for improving the level of mental health of those people who we live and work with. National R U OK? Day is such an opportunity this week and I urge members and senators to get involved in it, to make sure that it is a success in transmitting that message about our collective responsibility to each other to make sure that mental illness is minimised.