Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the findings of the Australian National Audit Office performance audit Suicide Prevention Policy Development and Monitoring, which:

(a) found that the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's approach to developing and monitoring suicide prevention policy to be only partly effective;

(b) raised serious concerns about the accountability and effectiveness of nearly $1 billion in Commonwealth spending on suicide prevention programs; and

(c) found that the grant agreements examined did not include clear performance indicators to measure effectiveness or efficiency;

(2) acknowledges that around nine Australians die by suicide each day and more than 150 attempt to take their own lives;

(3) raises serious concerns of the lack of measurable outcomes and clear accountability by the Government in national suicide prevention efforts; and

(4) calls on the Government to strengthen accountability and transparency in suicide prevention funding by ensuring programs are supported by clear targets, robust evaluation and measurable outcomes.

Today marks 95 years since one of the most esteemed members of this parliament took his own life, 95 years since Major General Harold 'Pompey' Elliott unfortunately tragically committed suicide. This was one of our greatest Australians. This was a man who served at Gallipoli. This was a man who led troops at Lone Pine. This was a man who served on the Western Front. He was the highest-ranking Australian at Fromelles, he was the victor at Villers-Bretonneux and he served in the Senate here for 10 years, representing the state of Victoria as a Nationalist Party senator. And, in 1931, on this day, he took his own life. He is a demonstration that, no matter how strong, no matter how capable and no matter how esteemed an Australian may be, they can be susceptible to the risk of suicide.

In the early 1930s, we saw our highest rate of suicides ever recorded in Australia. I think it was probably due to a mixture of the Great Depression and the aftermath of the Great War. So in 1931, the year before the passing of Elliot, it was our bleakest suicide year on record—29.8 men per 100,000 took their own lives. It remains the bleakest year on record for male suicide.

But, nearly a century later, our rates of suicide across the whole population have reduced by only 25 per cent. I don't think that's good enough, and I don't think anyone in this chamber and in this parliament would agree that that's good enough when you consider all the medical advancements that we've had over the course of that century and all the advances that we've made in technology, in science and in an understanding of mental health. A 25 per cent reduction isn't good enough. That's why it's important that we're debating this today on this anniversary. It's so critical that every dollar that the federal government invests in suicide prevention counts. We need to bring to suicide prevention the same determination and the same commitment that Pompey Elliott and his generation of Australians brought to their public service and the duties that they performed for our nation.

The Australian National Audit Office performance audit into suicide prevention, policy development and monitoring found that the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's approach to developing and monitoring suicide prevention policy is only partly effective. This report has found that $1 billion in funding is failing to demonstrate accountability or a clear impact. The report also found that, four to five years after the national suicide prevention agreements were signed, the objective of reducing suicide deaths has still not been achieved. I talked about the 25 per cent reduction in nearly 100 years. In this century, we've barely seen any reduction at all. It moves around from year to year, but we're still seeing nine Australians commit suicide every day and 150 Australians attempt to take their own lives.

The grant agreements that the ANAO checked through this performance report found that there were no indicators of effectiveness or efficiency. The findings reflect deep concerns raised by families, clinicians and frontline suicide prevention workers. It simply isn't good enough, and we need to make sure that every dollar is going to count not just because it's the right thing to do by Australia's taxpayers but because 150 Australians are attempting to take their own life every single day and they are relying on us to get this right. When lives are at stake, it simply isn't good enough for the government to write checks and hope that they're going to hit the target and that the money that we are investing in this area is going to achieve the outcomes that we want. We need to make sure that they are hitting the mark.

Suicide prevention must be treated as a national priority, and it must be backed by clear and measurable federal investment. The Auditor-General has clearly found a system drifting without clear direction or proper measurement of results. We need to note the ANAO report with great interest. Taxpayers are funding program after program, yet the government cannot clearly show whether they are working. More needs to be done in this area, and I don't want that to become a partisan thing. It's been a failure of all governments for many decades. It is not good enough, and both sides of the parliament need to be doing better. I commend the motion to the House.

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