Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister please update the House on how the Morrison government is guaranteeing the essential services that Australians rely on through the provision of increased access to vital mental health services and support?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Higgins, who, as a nationally leading paediatric researcher, understands essential services and understands in particular that the provision of mental health is one of the most essential of services that Australia can provide. In particular, in any one year we know that mental health is a challenge for all of us in all of our electorates. Four million Australians have some form of mental health challenge. This year, of course, it has been harder than at any time since the Second World War. We have seen, in the four weeks just finished, a 31 per cent increase in Medicare mental health services in one state alone: in Victoria. We've seen a national increase of 14 per cent. Outside of Victoria that national average was balanced out by an eight per cent increase in New South Wales and a seven per cent average across the other six states. So what we can see is that there is a profound impact across the country, but in particular in Victoria at roughly four times the rate of growth of other states, and that's a significant and undeniable consequence that we all have to address, recognise and respond to.

At the same time, when we look at the comparison of Kids Helpline we see a 31 per cent increase in Kids Helpline services in Victoria as opposed to other states and territories. We see a 77 per cent increase in Beyond Blue services in Victoria as opposed to the rest of the country. Against that basis what we've done is invested $5.7 billion in the budget, an increase of half a billion dollars, in mental health services to help meet these needs, to support these needs, to add to the capacity that's available.

Telehealth, in particular, has been made available, with now well over 35 million services, of which we see that mental health is a very major component. In addition to that, what we've also seen, beyond telehealth, is the addition of $100 million for doubling the Medicare better access services in Australia for psychological support. Then in Victoria, where there's an additional need, there's $44 million which has been put over and above everything else, and that includes $17 million for services such as Beyond Blue and Kids Helpline to provide that support, to provide that belief that we can get through this most difficult of lockdowns in that state. What we see as well is that we've set-up, and we're operating, 15 new Head to Health clinics in Victoria—set-up over a period of three weeks. All of these things are helping to protect and support the mental health of Australians.