Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was honoured when the member for Scullin asked me to second this motion that he has moved today, and I suspect that part of the reason he asked me to second this motion was the work that I've been doing in suicide prevention. In particular, in my maiden speech, I noted that one of things that I wanted to do in this place was to try and pierce the loneliness and the blackness that many people who are contemplating taking their own lives feel. And I have been interested, as he has, in the developments in Britain on this subject.

While the member for Scullin and I agree that loneliness is a major issue of concern in our society today, as we come from different political traditions we perhaps have different ways that we might address it. I always baulk when UN human rights rapporteurs are mentioned on anything; it's not something that I want to touch in any way, shape or form. But that's not to take away from the importance of the issue that's raised, generally.

We live in a world where, technologically, we are much more connected today than we were at any time in our past. I can see my son, who's 10 months old, every day on FaceTime. That's a wonderful thing that previous generations of parliamentarians, who were separated from their own children by virtue of the work that we do here, would not have had. And, while we can have thousands and thousands of friends and followers on Facebook and social media, and while we can have the freedom to travel that they didn't in previous generations, those deep relationships or friendships which formed the bedrock of our societies for generations have frayed.

Perhaps the difference in our political traditions may well indicate a different response to the issue of loneliness. Sometimes, those opposite would prefer for government to intervene and correct some failures in the market here, whereas I think those on our side are more likely to look to our prepolitical institutions—things like churches and Scouting groups and service clubs and sports clubs and the like—to bolster the fight against loneliness. In fairness, many of those organisations which had their heyday in the middle of last century have struggled, as we have become a more atomised society, to reach out to the most marginalised in our community, and their memberships have struggled and they've declined over time.

In 2007, a national survey of mental health and wellbeing was conducted. People were found to be twice as likely to have a mental health issue that went for more than 12 months if they didn't have family members or friends to rely on or confide in. In fact, having no contact with friends, you are more than twice as likely to have a mental health disorder of that type.

Too many of us are living lonely and isolated lives. Many of us think of the shocking stories that we hear from time to time about elderly women whose bodies are found. I think of the story of Natalie Wood, who'd lost contact with the outside world; eight years after she had died, she was found in her apartment. Eight years! That's an extraordinary thing. Why? Because she was a disconnected person—completely lonely. She fell in her home and died not long after. Her family, having had an argument with her, assumed that she was just unhappy with them and didn't want to contact her, so they never reached out. The neighbours assumed the home had been abandoned, so they never knocked. This is a symptom of the society that we live in today.

What some of the research that Michelle Lim and others have done reminds us is that loneliness is not just a problem for older isolated people; it's actually a problem that affects younger people—younger people moving to cities and doing work where they can be surrounded by people all day but have no genuine deep human connections. One of the things that I think generally helps build human connections is to try and find activities that, instead of doing face-to-face, we can do side-by-side. It is the shared nature of being in an activity and the shared interests—often, the shared struggle of trying to build something or create something—that help build the bonds of friendship. And I think we need to find more ways to empower community organisations to do just that sort of thing.

I note that the May government in Britain has created a minister for loneliness. I think we need to see how that particular proposal works out before we decide that that solution is the right solution for this country, but I have been interested to see that they will be receiving reports on the status of loneliness and the development of policy at a government level to work out what one can do to better combat these issues. Again, I commend the member for Scullin. This is a really important issue that he has raised, and I'm pleased to second and support this motion in the House today.

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