Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last month was National Mental Health Month. The theme of the month was 'Building Resilience: Communities and Connections'. I've got a fair bit to reflect on in this area for my own electorate, which includes Darwin and Palmerston. I have the privilege to serve Territorians along with, across the Territory, my colleagues the member for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, and the minister, Malarndirri McCarthy. They are doing important work in this area as well. I want to acknowledge their work upfront. We have the aim in the Territory, working federally with all stakeholders, of improving mental health for all Territorians.

I particularly want to thank some of my colleagues, including the member for Hunter, Dan Repacholi, the Special Envoy for Men's Health, who made the trek up to Solomon. We had great meetings with a range of stakeholders that are focused on men's health and male health, including, of course, young men and boys. Dan's appointment as the Special Envoy for Men's Health underlines how our government is giving this the attention that it needs, and he is doing a sterling job. Many would have seen him shave off his voluptuous beard to raise money for charity for men's health related works. I congratulate him for everything that he's doing in that special envoy role. His message is the message of all of us, including the fantastic member for Spence, who also does great work in Adelaide, in the north of Adelaide and in South Australia generally in men's health.

We do need to break down unhealthy masculine stereotypes of stoicism and bravado to encourage young men to access services and seek help when required. This is particular important for mental health. Often we see great examples of men reaching out for mental health support, showing that getting that assistance is actually strength. In Darwin, we joined a men's health roundtable, which really highlighted all the fantastic things that a whole range of stakeholders are doing in the Territory. We talked about healthy masculinity, the progress of concepts of manhood and the engagement of young man in particular. But we're also putting our money where our mouth is, in terms of programs in my electorate that are working with teenage boys in particular, and I'll touch on those briefly.

At the other end of the spectrum, it's not that men's sheds are only for senior men; they're there for a whole age range of men. The men's shedders were at ShedFEST NT, which was hosted by the Australian Men's Sheds Association. It got all the men's sheds from around the Territory together up in Darwin. It was great to go along to that with Special Envoy Repacholi. It's a great way of getting men in a place where they can connect and chat. It's a safe space. They get to work on projects, share skills and connect.

I mentioned our programs with young men and boys aged 12 to 18. Grassroots Action Palmerston has a program called Turtle Back. We have funded them to come up with a learning and leadership centre that they are putting into action. I've visited them and the physical infrastructure is going in. They're going to be working with young boys—in particular, those who have been exposed to family violence when growing up—and giving them the skills, support and encouragement to break those cycles. It's a very important program. It will work with boys from all backgrounds, but, particularly with the First Nations young men and boys, it is done in the culturally safe and appropriate way.

When we talk about mental health, we know that a lot of damage is caused through eating disorders. In September, with my friend and colleague, the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Emma McBride, I hosted the Northern Territory Eating Disorder Roundtable with Eating Disorders Families Australia, led by Jane Rowan. I want to thank all the frontline practitioners, the NT Health people and the system leaders who came together to identify solutions that are going to strengthen our support in the Northern Territory for Territorians with eating disorders or difficulties managing their relationship with food. It was really positive. That was highlighted by everyone.

While the assistant minister was there, we also visited headspace. We've given them increased funding, so the Darwin headspace will become a headspace Plus. We also visited the Medicare mental health centre, which has also got extended hours now. Thank you to all those mental health professionals that are doing such fantastic work.

Just finally, I want to touch on a couple of important things. One is the leadership role that our government is taking to protect young children and teenagers under the age of 16 from the harms that social media incurs, giving them time to develop the tools to be able to manage that space more effectively and more safely. From 10 December, certain social media platforms will need to take steps to make sure that under-16-year-olds aren't able to have an account.

One of the things I'm very proud to be working on with the member for Spence and others is veteran and ADF mental health. We pushed hard for a royal commission when we were not government. The royal commission is done. The recommendations have been laid down. We're getting after implementing those recommendations. We're engaging with stakeholders to make sure that everyone who puts their hand up to wear our flag proudly is provided with the best possible support and care. That is important for our mental health responsibilities as the responsible 'mental health and men's health and all sorts of health' government that we are.

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