Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this very important motion. I welcome the late-to-the-party support from those members opposite because, when this funding eventually runs out for Fortem, I will be going through all of the Hansard transcripts of those who are getting up and talking about how great Fortem is. We'll be raising that when the founding rounds come around again. Fortem is an excellent organisation. In the last parliament, we not only funded them the $10 million that we put on offer in the March budget, but we funded them several millions of dollars.

This is a pet project of mine that I've been working on for more than six years. The then superintendent of the Queensland Ambulance Service, Neil Reid, who is a constituent of mine, came to me and said, 'Andrew, you guys and the feds do so much for our vets; what are you doing for first responders?' My initial response was that the first responders are the responsibility of the states and territories. We look after defence at the ADF. But, I thought, that's not good enough. Our first responders are our men and women in uniform back home. We provide $11½ billion through the Department of Veterans' Affairs to our veterans, and so we should. But the sad reality is that our first responders, who see so much carnage on our roads and in our homes—floods, fires, you name it—do not get looked after properly by the state and territory governments. Enter Fortem. Fortem was the brainchild of John Bale, who started Soldier On. I had a lot to do with John when he was with Soldier On. He and I got together, and I tried to get funding for Fortem through various ministers when we were in government. I want to give a shout-out to the member for Maranoa, who was the first federal minister to provide funding to Fortem. He understood the importance of providing mental health care to our front-line first responders here in Australia. Whilst technically it is not the responsibility of the federal government, morally it is. I'm not going to stand here and get into an argument about constitutional jurisdictions, particularly when the state and territory governments are not pulling their weight. When they weren't looking after the mental health of our first responders, sadly, we needed to step in.

In March, in this last round of funding, we provided $10 million to Fortem. I was extremely disappointed when the now Labor government did not carry that through. Fortem had already received $2 million, or the promise of $2 million, but they had had $8 million cut from their budget by this Labor government. I and the member for McPherson, and every other coalition member who has served in uniform as a first responder, stood up at a press conference and said, 'We will not let this stand.' In fact, I spoke with the minister personally. I said, 'Minister, we've got to change this; we've got to make sure that the funding flows through to our first responders.' I wasn't given a lot of hope, but with the help of the media and the coalition members, we effectively forced the Prime Minister's hand on this. I'm very pleased that the Prime Minister changed his mind about providing the additional $8 million. I thank him for it. We didn't want to make this a political issue because this is above politics, just as the service of our veterans is.

The Fortem organisation provide tremendous services. I've had them to a roundtable in my electorate—in fact, not a roundtable but a whole seminar—where I invited all my emergency service responders to come along. They are a great organisation. They care not just for the mental health of first responders but also for their families, who go through so much trauma—almost as much is the first responders themselves. I'm very pleased the government has turned around on this point and I thank them for it.

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