Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mental health is an issue that has been one of the four pillars that I have staked my parliamentary career on. It's very, very important to me, because I know it's important to the people of Fisher. I know it's important to almost every Australian.

Around eight Australians take their own lives each and every single day. For every person that takes their own life, 30 people attempt it. Those statistics are chilling, and they impact on so many people. When one person decides to take their own life, or to try, the knock-on effect for friends, family and co-workers is unbelievably devastating. Putting aside friends, family and co-workers, it directly impacts 240 people every day, and that's just those who are seeking to take their own lives.

I'm proud to say that I am the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Mental Health. At every opportunity in the last nine years, I've come to this place, whether in the chamber or at public-speaking events, and I have taken the opportunity to speak about the prevalence of mental health and how we can care for those people and their families. This is not going to be a beat up of the government, because this has been a very long journey that I have walked for many, many years. But federal and state governments of all persuasions just do not do enough.

Having said that, I've said before that this government does not get mental health, and I mean it. They don't understand the pressure faced by millions of Australians, their families and their loved ones. I believe that this government doesn't get the impact of mental health on Australia as a whole—on our economy, our productivity and all aspects of our lives. Nearly half of all Australians will experience mental illness in their lifetime, and at least one in five Australians experience some form of mental illness in any given year. Just think about those figures. Nearly half of all Australians will experience mental illness in their lifetime.

We should never forget that the first thing the current government did when it came to power was to cut the number of Medicare subsidised psychologist visits from 20 to 10 over the period of a year. The increase to 20 visits was introduced by the coalition during the COVID-19 era, and the decision by this government to remove these visits was an indication that it simply does not understand the huge impact of mental health on everyday Australians. Suicide Prevention Australia CEO, Nieves Murray, said at the time that the decision was very concerning when distress within the community was high. She said:

The decision to remove extra mental health supports at a time when interest rates are rising, housing pressure is growing and distress is high is baffling and very concerning.

The decision had an immediate impact when, during the continuing cost-of-living crisis, many Australians were forced to compromise their mental health care and even postpone critical mental health care.

From opposition, we've been leading the way on mental health, and I'm proud of what we have achieved, especially in my own seat of Fisher. Many of the things that I'm about to talk about were things and programs that we were able to achieve whilst we were in government. Since my election in 2016, with the support of the then coalition federal government—I want to send a shout-out to the best health minister this country has ever seen, and that was Greg Hunt, the member for Flinders—the Sunshine Coast has become a true leader in mental health research and treatment. The then coalition federal government funded more than $30 million worth of cutting-edge mental health projects on the Sunshine Coast, including $8.3 million for a national PTSD centre managed by the UniSC Thompson Institute, $11.8 million for research and treatment programs into dementia, youth mental health and suicide at the Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience at the UniSC Thompson Institute, $7.3 million for the construction and continued operation of Australia's first residential eating disorder facility in my home town of Mooloolah Valley. We put $3.2 million towards an Australian-first eating disorder treatment trial, delivered through the Sunshine Coast Primary Health Network. We funded a brand-new headspace in Caloundra to tackle youth mental health. We provided further funding for the Nurture Festival, which is on again this weekend. The Nurture Festival connects young people and their families with local mental health support services. This was in addition to the $53 million out of the Liberal-National government's record $1.45 billion of funding for community mental health services in our then last budget, with $53 million allocated to the Sunshine Coast Primary Health Network.

I am also a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Eating Disorders, again an issue of huge and growing importance in our society. As co-chair, I can say we have quite a lot planned for this year. I'm especially proud of the coalition government's decision to provide $3.2 million for an Australian-first pilot to improve the treatment and care of people with eating disorders in Fisher. It was based on the building of Australia's first residential eating disorder facility that Greg Hunt and I worked together to secure. We secured around $70 million to roll out one of those eating disorder facilities in every state in this country. Through the Butterfly Foundation, we provided $1.4 million to run a pilot project on the Sunshine Coast. The national pilot supported over 240 patients, trialling new ways to support people with eating disorders, which will ultimately inform future support for patients around Australia.

I want to send a shout-out to Mark and Gayle Forbes from endED, who are the masterminds of the building of Australia's first residential eating disorder facility. They've moved on from Wandi Nerida and the Butterfly Foundation and have now created their own purpose-built step-up, step-down facility, which I was at on Friday. Mark and Gayle Forbes are amazing Australians who have given so much to our local community. They've won all sorts of citizenship prizes, but no prize can really reflect the amount of time, blood, sweat, tears and money that Mark and Gayle Forbes have put into caring for Australians with eating disorders.

Eating disorders are an insidious disease that impacts not exclusively but particularly young Australians—and particularly young women. The advent of social media has seen an explosion of eating disorders in our community. The member for Flinders and I have worked together very hard on social media issues. She's done a terrific job. We've got to get kids off devices, where kids are constantly bombarded with images of the 'perfect body', which is almost entirely unattainable. The social media platforms are constantly pumping images of sixpacks to young boys and the so-called 'perfect body' to young women. It is incredibly sad that the age of people who are suffering from eating disorders gets younger and younger. What most people don't realise is that more Australians die of eating disorders in this country than are killed on our roads. We have to do better in relation to the care of people with mental health problems right across the board and in particular in relation to eating disorders.