Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison government's health response to the COVID-19 pandemic is helping Australians, particularly their mental health?

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

I particularly want to thank the member for Reid for her work as a child psychologist before coming to this place but also in terms of supporting the people of her community at this moment. We know that around the world it has been another day with over 600,000 cases and, agonisingly, 9,800 lives lost. We also know that in Australia the health investment of approximately $30 billion has helped save over 30,000 lives here. Sadly, we haven't saved every life, and we fight to do that every single day.

But one of the things that is occurring, beyond the containment measures of borders, testing, tracing and distancing, is the vaccination. As the Prime Minister has said, yesterday was a record day of almost 214,000 Australians, and over 1.2 million in the last seven days. We are now at over 12.8 million vaccinations in Australia. AstraZeneca doses among Australians have just passed seven million doses, of which five million are first doses. And now two-thirds of Australians over the age of 50 have been vaccinated.

All this provides a critical and important protection, but at the same time we need to focus on the mental health of Australians. That's one thing that has been fundamental. We know the challenges, whether for children, young adults—people of all ages—and the stresses that they face. On that front, the unity of the House has I believe been very strong. We've come together to put in place structural changes: the creation of telehealth, the creation of a system that has delivered over 68 million consultations around Australia. Amongst those, five million have been specifically for mental health, but many more inevitably will have significantly dealt with mental health. That structural reform will have changed the delivery of Medicare and health services in Australia forever but will have saved many lives during the course of this pandemic.

In addition to that, we've been able to support Lifeline, beyondblue, Kids Helpline and so many other groups, as well as doubling the number of services under the Medicare Better Access scheme. This scheme was cut in 2011, from 18 to 10 services. We've now returned it from 10 to 20 services. And then, fundamentally, as we go forward, the transformation of mental health treatment in Australia: 40 adult mental health services—Head to Health—around the country; over 150 headspace services; and, for the first time, 15 government funded kids' Head to Health services. All these things are coming together to support mental health, to save lives and to protect lives.