Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition has not supported this motion. I am sorry to say that this is a case of the Greens trying to play catch-up. The Greens had the opportunity on 26 October to support the coalition’s motion that called on the government to expand mental health services but failed to do so. That motion passed the Senate thanks to the support of Senators Fielding and Xenophon. Senator Siewert’s excuse was that our motion had no costings; but, as the senator is well aware, the coalition’s motion was a mirror of our mental health policy, which was fully costed at $1.5 billion. The coalition policy has been endorsed by leading mental health practitioners, while the Labor Party has failed to act on mental health in its first term. Labor promised to make mental health a second-term priority, but all we got were certain cuts. Thanks to a backflip this week, the Better Access initiative funding has been reinstated.

Can I also say it is a bit rich of the Greens to now call on the Senate to support a motion on mental health so that they can save face with their constituents after the public backlash they received for not supporting the coalition’s motion on 26 October. GetUp! has an automatic email on its website urging the Greens to support the same coalition motion in the lower house. I ask the Greens: how many emails did you get funnelled through GetUp! which have now pushed you to put forward this motion?

The Greens have used as an excuse to not support the coalition’s motion that there were no costings. The motion today asked for $450 million a year for four years, but where is the money coming from? There are no costings for the dedicated mental health commission, no costings for the one-shop community mental health centres and no costings for the additional training for GPs. This is a double standard by the Greens. We believe in real action and call on the government to act on the motion already passed by the Senate on 26 October.