Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Suicide is the leading cause of death in Australia for men under 44 and for women under 34. More people die from suicide than from road accidents. Over the past five years the average number of suicide deaths per year in Australia was 2,415. These statistics are sobering and they are heartbreaking. Every year 400,000 Australians experience suicidal thoughts. Sixty-five thousand make suicide attempts. Thirty-five thousand are admitted to hospital for injuries incurred in the course of attempts to commit suicide. In 2012, 1,901 men and 634 women died through suicide. Some estimates put the costs of suicide to the economy at $17½ billion or one per cent of GDP per year.

But, of course, the financial cost of suicide is not the most important consideration. The most important consideration is that, behind each of these statistics, is a human story of grief, pain and suffering. As a college student, I will never forget learning of one of the young women of my college committing suicide. At that time, she was surrounded by people her own age, her peers, going through the college at the same time as her, and yet she was not able to be a survivor of suicide. As recently as last week I heard a story from a survivor of suicide, at the annual MATES in Construction charity lunch.

MATES in Construction is an organisation that assists with mental health issues in the construction industry. At that MATES in Construction annual lunch, Justin, from Jelly Belly Plumbing, told us that he was a survivor of suicide. The MATES in Construction lunch is aimed at encouraging participants in the building and construction industry to reach out to people in that industry and provide help when it comes to mental health. Of the people who died from suicide in 2012, 172 were construction workers. That is more than five times the number of construction workers who died in workplace accidents that year—which is not to diminish the fact that any death in the workplace is one death too many; it is concerning that so many people from the construction industry that are taking their own life.

MATES in Construction is an organisation that is saving lives in the construction industry. It is an organisation that works to arrest and decline suicide rates in the construction industry. The construction industry is such a transient industry and lots of workers are employed from project to project for periods of as short as a few weeks at a time. A recent report by Professor Chris Doran, of the Hunter Medical Research Institute, found that, since the MATES in Construction program started in 2008 in Queensland—which is where the program originated, though it is reaching out across the nation now—the risk of suicide in Queensland's construction industry has decreased by almost 10 per cent. So, as I say, they are saving lives.

I was really honoured to go to the charity lunch last week to represent Senator McLucas, and I was struck when I heard the stories from the supporters, the people around the table and those who spoke about just how effective the model has been. This is a model that is shared across industry. It is industry participants working in partnership to make a real difference to the lives of building and construction workers. For example, the lunch itself was promoted and sponsored by Hutchinson—a great Queensland company in the building and construction industry. MATES in Construction is supported by employer organisations. I am reliably informed by the chair of the organisation that the QMBA worked very hard at the outset of the organisation to take internal steps to be able to become strong supporters and promoters of MATES in Construction, and I congratulate the Queensland Master Buildings Association for doing that. Other organisations that support MATES in Construction include Construction Skills Queensland, another industry based partnership model that is showing great and successful outcomes in Queensland, like other organisations such as the Services Industry College and the others that were present at the lunch.

What was really heartening was to see the way that unions and employers are working together to arrest and decline suicide in the industry. In fact, on my table I had representatives from great large companies like John Holland and Lend Lease, who are very strong supporters of MATES in Construction as well. It is unfortunate that the Commonwealth funding for this organisation will run out shortly. It is an organisation that costs around $800,000 a year to run, yet their work in preventing suicide returns a saving of about $3.6 million each year. I would encourage those on the government side of this House to work on ensuring that funding is continued for MATES in Construction into the future. (Time expired)

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