I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that Mental Health Month is observed throughout October each year to raise awareness of mental health, reduce stigma and encourage all Australians to seek support when they need it;

(2) recognises the importance of mental health to the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities, and acknowledges the role played by families, carers, lived experience advocates, peer workers, community organisations and health professionals in supporting Australians experiencing mental health challenges;

(3) welcomes the Government's continued investment in strengthening Australia's mental health system, including through:

(a) the rollout of Medicare Mental Health Centres, with more than 56 of the planned 92 centres now open nationwide, providing free, walk-in mental health support with no referral or diagnosis required;

(b) the establishment of Medicare Mental Health Kids Hubs, providing free support for children aged 0 to 12 and their families, with 17 Kids Hubs being rolled out across the country;

(c) expanding the network of headspace services and upgrading 30 centres to a new and enhanced headspace Plus model, providing young Australians with accessible mental health care, early intervention and holistic support;

(d) the new national early intervention service, Medicare Mental Health Check In, providing free guided digital support and low intensity therapy to help Australians build practical skills; and

(e) strengthening access to mental health care through Medicare and community-based services;

(4) acknowledges that early intervention, community connection and reducing stigma are critical to improving mental health outcomes and preventing suicide; and

(5) encourages all Australians during Mental Health Month to check in with family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues, seek support when they need it, and help build communities where every person feels connected, supported and able to access quality mental health care.

Mental health is not an abstract policy issue for me; it is deeply personal. During my university years, I experienced quite severe anxiety for the very first time, and I know personally what it is like to reach out for help and support. At the time I was living in regional Queensland, and I know the challenges of living in a regional community where mental health services can be few and far between. Members of my family have also died by suicide. I know the grief that follows, I know the questions that remain for those left behind, and I've experienced the profound ripple effect of those suicides across families and communities that can last for decades, as well as the generational trauma that is experienced.

In 2024, 3,326 Australians died by suicide. More than three-quarters of those were men. Those figures are not just statistics; each one represents a person who was loved, a family that has been changed forever and a life that mattered deeply. Today, we welcome Movember to Parliament House to highlight the urgent need to improve the mental health and wellbeing of Australian men and boys. Movember's work reminds us that prevention and early intervention must happen in the places where people live their lives: in sporting clubs, workplaces and communities. Movember's Ahead of the Game program uses community sport to help young people, coaches and parents recognise the signs that someone may be struggling, start difficult conversations and encourage them to seek help early. These conversations can begin in change rooms, on the sideline at work and over a coffee with a mate—in a supported way.

That is why I brought this motion before the chamber ahead of Mental Health Month in October. We must speak openly about mental health, we must listen without judgement, and we must ensure that, when someone finds the courage to say, 'I am not okay,' help is there. No Australian should ever reach breaking point before they can receive support. Around this time last year, I spoke in this place about the need for more mental health services, particularly in my local community of Bonner.

One year on, I am very proud to say that, as part of the Albanese Labor government, we are delivering and investing more than $1.1 billion to expand Medicare backed mental health services and grow our mental health workforce. A national network of 92 Medicare mental health centres is being rolled out. Fifty-seven are already open and operating, and, together, they have delivered more than half a million free visits with no referral, no appointment and no cost. People can simply walk in and receive confidential support from mental health clinicians, peer support and specialist staff. That matters because, when someone is struggling, navigating a complicated system can feel impossible. People should not have to know exactly what service they need. They should not need a diagnosis or the perfect words to explain how they feel. They should simply be able to pick up the phone, walk through the door and say, 'I need some support.'

This investment is making a real difference. Close to home, in my community of Bonner, the Redlands Medicare Mental Health Centre which services our community has already supported more than 200 people with ongoing care and recorded more than 2½ thousand service contacts. We've also launched the Medicare Mental Health Check In, a free service available online and over the phone to anyone aged 16 and over, without a referral or diagnosis. It gives people somewhere to start, including those who cannot easily access a place based service and those living in regional and remote parts of our country. We are also investing in the mental health of young Australians. Earlier this year, I welcomed Assistant Minister Emma McBride to headspace Capalaba, where we announced a further $800,000 in additional funding to meet growing demand in our local community.

Labor has invested in mental health. I was proud to bring this motion to the chamber today because, together, we need to ensure that, when someone speaks up and speaks out and reaches out for support, the help is there and available. Our responsibility as the government is to ensure that that next step is easier and that every Australian knows that they are not alone and that, even in their darkest moments, hope and help are within reach.

Is the motion seconded?

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

I want to thank the member for Bonner for bringing this important motion to the parliament, because mental health is a very important issue to me, as it is to many people in this country. Let me start where every member of this House can agree, and that's in relation to stigma. Stigma stops people asking for help, so reducing stigma matters. So does encouraging Australians to check on a mate. That is where R U OK?Day is so important, but a conversation is not necessarily treatment. When someone says they are not okay, there has to be help for that person, and both people—those that ask the question and that answer the question—need to know what you do next.

More than 3,300 Australians die by suicide each year. That's nine every day. Three quarters of those nine are men, just like you and me. Regional, rural and remote Australians and Indigenous Australians die at significantly greater rates. Let me ask the government a simple question: if we know prevention works, why is our system still built around crises? Last November, the Productivity Commission handed down its final review of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement. It found that what was required went far beyond finetuning. That agreement was due to expire in June. It has been extended a year, to June 2027, while a new one is negotiated. Those negotiations are now underway.

The Australian National Audit Office has told us what happens when we measure inputs instead of outcomes. It found national suicide reduction objectives had not been achieved, monitoring was incomplete, and the department had no proper framework to measure the impact of Commonwealth suicide-prevention investment. The government's own National Suicide Prevention Strategy names prevention as the first of its three domains and sets out 106 recommended actions to address the drivers of suicidal distress. The government endorsed it, but endorsing a strategy is not implementing one. Where is the funding? Where's the timetable? Where's the reporting? Prevention means acting on the pressures that push people towards the edge in the very first place.

Suicide Prevention Australia's community tracker, in March, found nearly four in five Australians in higher distress than a year earlier, with 45 per cent naming cost of living and personal debt as the cause. Housing, debt isolation and gambling—these are primary issues of mental health distress in Australia. In Fisher alone, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's data records 103 deaths from suicide between 2018 and 2022—103 deaths. They're someone's mum, dad, brother, sister or child. The electorate's age-standardised rate of 11.8 deaths per 100,000 people is just slightly below the national electorate average of 12.8, but we have to remember that each one of those people are people, and there is a very, very sad story behind each one of those deaths.

Prevention also pays significant dividends. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists puts the return at up to $4 for every dollar that we invest in this space, yet this government has moved the other way. Eligible Australians could once access up to 20 Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions. Labor carved that in half as their first job in public office in 2022. The independent evaluation of Better Access recommended that people with more severe or complex needs be able to readily access additional sessions. Labor did not deliver it. Those with the greatest need lost the treatment they had.

We've done this differently before. The former coalition government delivered the $2.3 billion National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, funded 40 community based adult mental health services, expanded headspace beyond 150 centres and established the National Suicide Prevention Office, which has since folded into the department. A service can exist on a government website and still be out of reach for the Australians who need it. Your postcode should not determine the help that you get in this space.

It's an honour to rise today and speak on this important issue. I want to thank my good friend the member for Bonner for her motion today and for all she does in the Queensland community and in this place to champion better access to mental health services.

October is Mental Health Month. One in five adults experience a mental health challenge in any 12 months—that's almost half of us in our lifetime. This is something that is impacting Australians right across the country, including in my home in Melbourne's western suburbs, where, with a median age of 35, we have a community full of young people—the ones who are often hit hardest.

No matter your age, the Albanese Labor government has invested in services that can help you. We're creating a network of mental health services that are free under Medicare across the lifespan, so that we can meet people where they're at. For children aged zero to 12, there are Medicare mental health kids hubs. For young people there is headspace, and for adults there are Medicare mental health centres. Through Medicare mental health check in, people can access early intervention and practical support before they reach crisis point.

This motion is timely because this Thursday is RU OK? Day: a national day of action for suicide prevention. It's a time to check in on your loved ones. Send that text, make that phone call and ask, 'Are you okay?' Sometimes a simple check in, a phone call or a conversation can save a life.

I want to take a moment to talk about a local organisation from the Western suburbs, Sisters to Sisters, and acknowledge the work of Yodit. Yodit is someone who has dedicated her working life to caring for others, particularly older Australians and people from vulnerable backgrounds. She brings compassion, empathy and resilience to that work. From her own experiences, Yodit knows the need and power of connecting with people from different cultural backgrounds. After experiencing unimaginable trauma, Yodit settled in Australia, where she strove to build a better life for her family and to make a better future. However, Yodit quickly realised that being a new migrant came with a fresh set of challenges. Through Sisters to Sisters, she has created a space for women from the Eritrean community to come together, talk openly about mental health and support one another.

That kind of community led support matters, because in many communities there can still be stigma around talking about mental health, which can be compounded by language barriers, cultural differences and difficulties navigating an unfamiliar healthcare system. Yodit shared with me that, in the Eritrean community, there is still a lot of stigma about getting mental health assistance from a counsellor or psychologist. Many members of the community still worry that needing this kind of help means you are unwell. For mums who might be struggling, whether that be with anxiety, depression, isolation, grief or something else, going to a counsellor might be too big of a first step. That's why Yodit founded Sisters to Sisters, to offer women in her community a safe place to discuss mental health—a place where they can build trust with other mums through self-care activities and share anything that might be on their minds, at their own pace, in a welcoming, non-judgemental environment. Sometimes the first step towards getting help isn't about walking into a clinic; it's sitting down with someone you trust and being able to say, 'I am not okay.' People like Yodit are helping to make those conversations possible—just women to women, sisters to sisters. We need a mental health system that meets people where they're at, whether that's through a community organisation like Sisters to Sisters, a headspace, a Medicare mental health centre or a new early intervention service through Medicare.

To Yodit and to all those who know what it feels like to face stigma and to break down barriers, thank you. Mental health care should not depend on how much money you have, whether you have a diagnosis or whether you know where to go for help. It should be there when you need it. We know this and our government knows this. It's why we're building a mental health system that is accessible, free through Medicare, focused on early intervention and available to Australians at every stage of their lives. I commend this motion to the House.

It is pleasing to see that, high up in the public galleries, we have a number of schoolchildren. Welcome to Canberra. What I would say, indeed, is please know that there is help available should you need it. Australia is a great country. It's the best in the world. R U OK? Day is marked on the second Thursday of September annually. I could say to the Deputy Speaker, the member for Wright, 'Are you okay?' I could say to the minister, the member for Eden-Monaro, 'Are you okay?' Member for Cook, 'Are you okay?' I know that you are, but, then again, you don't know what you don't know. We should reach out to our colleagues, to our adversaries, and ask them if they are okay. You never quite know what's going on in someone's own private life, in their world, in their head. Respect and friendliness and that compassion that we ought to show to others is so important.

I grew up, as I know did the three MPs I just mentioned, in an era that was vastly different than the one young people are growing up in today. We're having a debate in this parliament and in the nation at the moment about algorithms. With algorithms, unfortunately, it's almost like a fire hydrant of people's own biases are being forced upon you after you do a search or go on a social media network. It's so much pressure on young people. The government has certainly made some welcome changes with the social media ban for under-16s. That is to be commended. Algorithms are another debate altogether, and it's going to be an earnest debate and one that I think we need to carefully consider.

Certainly in regional Australia there are a number of good organisations to help people who live remotely and rurally with their mental health. In recent times that has become more prevalent amongst groups who would never have sought the support that they do these days. My father was a very old fashioned farmer, and there were times when he did it tough when the vagaries of the weather affected the fortunes on the farm, but many farmers these days are much more amenable to reaching out to say, 'I'm not okay'—and it is okay to say, 'I'm not okay.' I commend those brave farmers for doing it. We've got Riverina Bluebell, and I know Mick Graham and a bunch of dedicated volunteers do their best to promote awareness amongst our agricultural sector that you can reach out and there is help at hand. I commend all those psychologists and psychiatrists who practise in rural Australia—because heaven knows we need you. We need more of you. I commend them for taking that commitment and going out beyond the bright city lights to ensure that that people in rural and regional Australia have the same support that they enjoy in the cities.

Certainly, for our young people, there are so many pressures brought on them these days and I think resilience training is going to be something in the future that is going to be so important. Our school teachers do a lot of fine work, they do—let's acknowledge that from the outset—but they cannot do everything. They cannot be the sports coach and the absent parent and everything else and make sure that every child under them is mentally prepared for the challenges of today. I know that many of them do identify children at risk, and they are to be encouraged for the work that they do in this space, but it does come back to the home as well. Parents do have to take the responsibility to ensure as best they can that their children are in the right headspace. Who they're mixing with is important too. When I talk about headspace, I do commend former minister Christopher Pyne for his pioneering work in that regard. I commend anything that the government is doing in the mental health space, and I know that the member for Bonner has brought this motion to the House. It's an important one.

One issue I want to relay to the parliament when we're talking about mental health is: let's not forget our veterans, because mental health is part of the allied health, and that $5,000 allied healthcare cap is unnecessary. So many veterans have told me over the past fortnight, when I visited every territory in every state, that that cap has to be scrapped for the sake of the mental health of our veterans.

I thank the member for Bonner for bringing this really important issue before the House today. It's really good to hear everyone in this parliament speak so passionately about the importance of being able to access mental health support when and where people need it, because that's something the government believes in, and I think that's something all Australians expect to see from their government. We've made an investment of more than $1.1 billion to expand Medicare backed mental health services and grow the mental health workforce, ensuring people can access free support right across the country. We're rolling out a national network of 92 Medicare mental health centres, where people can walk in and access free and confidential mental health care without a referral or appointment. This is a real game changer for people. We already have 57 centres operating across Australia, and so far they've delivered more than 500,000 free walk-in appointments, providing tailored support through multidisciplinary teams of mental health clinicians, peer workers and other specialist staff. I'm really pleased that we've received a commitment for a Medicare mental health centre in my community, and I look forward to continuing to work to deliver this for the people of Chisholm.

We're also establishing 30 new headspace Plus centres to meet the growing needs of young people aged 12 to 25, alongside a new network of 20 youth specialist care centres for those requiring more intensive wraparound support. For children living in rural areas, the Albanese government has just announced a network of 20 headspace outreach centres, making sure that no matter where someone lives they can access support. In addition, we're delivering perinatal mental health centres for new and expectant parents, and kids hubs for children and their families, and we're expanding the headspace network to more than 200 services nationwide. Together, these reforms will help ensure all Australians can access the right mental health support at every age and stage of life. That is building on our broader $8.2 billion investment in mental health over 2026-27, supporting a simpler, fairer and more responsive system. That includes Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme services, hospital based care, and community initiatives such as men's sheds and Movember's Ahead of the Game.

We've also just launched the Medicare Mental Health Check In, a free digital service available online and over the phone for anyone in Australia aged 16 years and over. I encourage everyone to have a look at the services provided via the Medicare Mental Health Check In. It's available without a referral diagnosis, providing another easy pathway to support people experiencing mental health challenges.

I'm really grateful that in my own electorate of Chisholm we have a headspace located just down the road from my office, headspace Syndal. It offers young people aged 12 to 25 access to mental health and wellbeing support in a welcoming and friendly environment with an onsite youth-friendly GP for health needs, an alcohol-and-other-drugs counsellor, and work and study support. It's a really great service. This is a service that I know the community values, and they've delivered almost 7,000 free walk-in appointments. Previously, my electorate was the suburb of Box Hill, and I fought really hard for a headspace located there. That was largely in response to the calls from young people in my community for more services. I'm really honoured to have helped deliver that vital service. I know it is one that is being well utilised by the community. It's been a privilege to host both the health minister and the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention at headspace locations right across my electorate. We've met with staff and members of the community, including youth advisory representatives, to learn and discuss the essential work that organisations like headspace undertake each and every day.

It is really important in October each year that we mark Mental Health Month but that we also make sure, for all the other months of the year, we are doing all we can to raise awareness of mental health issues and providing people with the opportunity to get support whilst reducing stigma. The importance of mental health is all about the wellbeing of our communities, and I want to thank everyone who works in this space for everything that they do and encourage everyone in the community to check in with one another this Mental Health Month.

I welcome this motion and the recognition it gives to Mental Health Month, to Australians living with mental illness and to the families, carers, clinicians and community organisations who support them. I welcome investment in mental health, but I rise with concern. My electorate of Lyne stretches from communities around Maitland, Port Stephens and Dungog through the Mid North Coast and the Manning and north to Wauchope. Across that enormous geography, I see three layers of unmet mental health needs that governments must address.

The first is the underlying level of need. Both primary health networks in my electorate have documented the problem. Healthy North Coast describes mental health as one of the most pressing concerns raised by its community and service providers. It found 41 per cent of people who needed mental health services said that they could not access them. The Hunter, New England and Central Coast PHN has reached strikingly similar conclusions. Its comprehensive needs assessment found that access to and retention of psychiatrists and experienced psychologists was one of the most common mental health workforce concerns across its communities, particularly in regional areas. It identified long waiting times, cost, transport, fragmented services and shortages of specialists. The PHN also found rates of mental and behavioural disorders above the national average in communities including Dungog, Maitland, MidCoast and Port Stephens. These pressures exist alongside significant socioeconomic disadvantage, and the disadvantage matters when accessing mental health care means paying privately or travelling long distances.

That brings me to the second layer—the services that simply aren't there. This motion celebrates the rollout of 92 Medicare mental health centres, but there is no Medicare mental health centre in Lyne. It celebrates 17 Medicare mental health kids hubs for children aged up to 12. There is no kids hub in Lyne. It celebrates 30 headspace services being upgraded to headspace Plus. We have a headspace service at Taree doing important work, but no headspace Plus service has been announced in Lyne. And despite the pressure on Manning Base Hospital, Taree still does not have a Medicare urgent care clinic. Individually, governments can explain each of those decisions. Collectively, they paint a troubling picture. They suggest an electorate of more than 130,000 people, spread across a vast regional area, is repeatedly falling between the cracks of new Commonwealth health infrastructure. This simply is not good enough.

The third layer is perhaps the most confronting: specialist care. Manning Base Hospital has a 20-bed acute mental health unit serving the Manning and Lower Mid North Coast. Yet I'm advised by people working within the hospital that there is currently no psychiatrist on staff. Psychiatric support is being provided through telehealth. Telehealth has an important role in regional medicine, but telehealth should supplement specialist care in regional communities, not become a substitute. This is where I worry we are seeing an abrogation of responsibility to regional Australians. We tell people to reach out. We tell parents to seek help early. We tell communities that mental health is just as important as physical health. But when they reach out, the service isn't there, the waiting list is too long or the psychiatrist is hundreds of kilometres away.

I spoke in my first speech in this parliament about the devastating floods that struck my community. I said that while the physical scars were there for everyone to see, the mental scars were less visible. Those scars remain. Our communities have endured floods, fires, isolation and enormous financial pressure. So I welcome the intent of this motion, but I ask the government to look again at Lyne. Look at what both our primary health networks are telling us. Look at the map, look at the data, look at the distances people are travelling, look at the services that are missing and then work with me to fix it. I'm asking the government to sit down with me, our primary health networks, NSW Health, our hospitals, our GPs and local mental health professionals, and to develop a practical plan to close these gaps across Lyne.

Mental Health Month asks all of us to check in with one another. Well, the government should be asking the people of Lyne, 'Are you okay?' Because I'm telling you we are not. Please work with me to make sure that when someone in my community reaches out for help, that help is actually there.

I rise today in support of the motion moved by the fantastic member for Bonner. She's done incredible work in this space. Mental Health Month recognises that mental health touches every community, every family and every generation. For too long, conversations about mental health were conversations that people felt they had to have behind closed doors. People were told to toughen up, get on with it and keep what they were going through to themselves. That is fortunately changing. It is no longer seen as weak to speak up. In fact, we're now seeing that asking for help is one of the strongest things that someone can do.

As a government, we have a responsibility to make sure that when someone does put their hand up and say, 'I need help,' there is somewhere for them to turn to. That is why I'm so proud to be part of a government that is taking mental health seriously. We are not just talking about reducing the stigma of mental health. We're actually investing in the services that Australians need. Across the country, we are rolling out Medicare mental health centres, establishing Medicare mental health kids hubs, expanding headspace services and delivering new early intervention support.

In my own community of Petrie, I've seen firsthand what this investment means. We have the Redcliffe Medicare Mental Health Centre, which has been a major success in our community. It removes so many of the barriers that can stop people from reaching out for help. I want to commend the team there. They're doing such a fantastic job. They've told me they've seen a sharp increase of blokes going—blokes over 55 years old. I think that's a demographic who has often struggled to reach out for mental health support when they need it, so I commend all those blokes for recognising they need some support. I'm so glad we actually have that support available when they do reach out.

People can walk through the door of this mental health centre without a referral, without formal diagnosis and without worrying about a bill afterwards. That matters because, when someone reaches the point where they are ready to seek support, we should be making that process easier and not putting any obstacles in their way. It means that a young person struggling with anxiety, a parent who is feeling overwhelmed, someone who is isolated or a person going through one of the hardest points of their life has somewhere local they can go to and find support. They can simply go in there and say, 'I need some help.' That is what the focus should be on—making sure that people can access the care they need when they need it.

We also know that mental health support cannot be one size fits all. Different communities have different experiences, different barriers and different needs. That is why I was honoured to join the brilliant Emma McBride, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, to open the nation's first urban Indigenous headspace in Deception Bay. It is something very special in our community, and I can say we're both extremely proud of this centre and the work that's being delivered.

It's important we focus on early intervention as well. We need to reach people earlier, to give them the tools and support that they need, and make mental health care part of the normal healthcare system. That is what this government is working towards, and that is what investments in the Medicare mental health centres, headspaces and the new Medicare Mental Health Check In service are designed to achieve.

We also need to recognise the families, carers, peer workers, health professionals, community organisations and people with lived experience who do extraordinary work every single day. Often these are the first people that someone turns to. They listen, they support, they encourage and they help people take the next step towards professional care. Sometimes support starts with something as simple as asking someone, 'Are you okay?' And then genuinely listening to the answer.

During Mental Health Month, I encourage everyone across Petrie and across the country to check in with the people around them. Check in with the mate who's gone a little quiet, check in with the colleague who doesn't seem themselves at the moment, and check in with someone you've not heard from in a while. And if someone crosses your mind, I encourage you to call them or text them, because they might have crossed your mind for a reason. Trust me; this truly makes a difference. And if you're a person struggling, please know that speaking up is not weakness. Mental health is health, and Australians deserve a mental health system that treats it that way.

In my community, we can already see the difference these investments are making, from the Medicare mental health centre in Redcliffe to the nation's first urban Indigenous headspace in Deception Bay. I'm proud to be part of a government that understands that looking after Australians means looking after both their physical and their mental health.

Of course, mental health and suicide prevention should always be a national priority. Around one in five Australian adults experience mental ill health in any 12-month period. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, over 40 per cent of Australians have experienced a mental health issue at some point in their life. More than 3,300 Australians die by suicide each year. That's around nine Australians every single day. Men account for more than three-quarters of suicide deaths. Australians in regional and remote areas and Indigenous Australians continue to face significantly higher rates of suicide. Unfortunately, what we've seen through the Closing the Gap statistics is that the rate of Indigenous suicide in this country is trending in the wrong direction. And the broader stats around suicide deaths in Australia have not improved this century. It's simply not good enough.

It's important timing for this debate this week, because this month is, of course, Mental Health Month. It's Suicide Prevention Week, and we will celebrate World Suicide Prevention Day and R U OK? Day on Thursday. There will be many events in this building and many stakeholders moving around the hallways of this building, in this space, this week.

We also had, on Friday, the meeting of the state, territory and federal health ministers and mental health ministers to try to progress the development of a new five-year national mental health and suicide prevention agreement. Unfortunately, we're hearing from a lot of stakeholders who are concerned about the lack of speed and the lack of ambition in those new agreement negotiations. I'll read from the communique from the Health Ministers' Meeting that occurred on Friday. In relation to the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, it says:

Health Ministers … discussed the next National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement … Ministers acknowledged the valuable contributions from the sector and people with lived experience. Ministers agreed to continue working together on the National Agreement for further discussion at their next meeting in December. This meeting will include representatives from the Mental Health sector.

Now, that does not sound to me like a very ambitious agenda; that sounds like a very routine communique. It doesn't sound like we're hearing, from the health ministers and the mental health ministers, a determination to try to lower those statistics and to try to properly tackle this important issue.

We've got to achieve a system that works. Australia needs a system where people can get help regardless of their postcode, where people with complex mental illness can access adequate treatment, where suicide prevention programs are properly evaluated and where governments are independently scrutinised. The key point that I want to make is that spending is not the same as success. The Australian National Audit Office has examined Commonwealth suicide prevention policies and has found serious shortcomings. It found that national suicide reduction objectives have not been achieved, monitoring was incomplete and the department did not have a proper framework to measure the impact of Commonwealth suicide prevention investment. That is the fundamental problem with this motion. The government lists the money spent, programs announced and centres opened, but the real measure of success is are suicide rates falling, can Australians get care where they need it, are people with serious and complex mental illness getting enough support, is access to support improving outside of our major cities and can the government demonstrate which programs are actually working?

Australians need a system where success is measured by outcomes rather than just expenditure. The government can't keep making announcements, cutting ribbons and pretending that the job is done. A new front door is only useful when it opens into a system that is working. Unfortunately, under this government, what we have seen is a cut to Medicare subsidised psychology sessions from 20 to 10. They've eliminated the independence of the Mental Health Commission and the Suicide Prevention Office, so now we have a situation where these important offices are marking the government's own homework. They've created uncertainty around research and community funding and they've largely rebadged coalition programs, rather than delivering substantial reform. When in government, the coalition expanded headspace to more than 150 centres. We funded the Head to Health network of community based adult mental health services as part of a $2.3 billion national mental health and suicide prevention plan. Labor, of course, subsequently renamed these to the Medicare Mental Health Centres. The coalition also established the National Suicide Prevention Office, which is an entity which has now been rolled into the department.

We have a long way to go to achieve a mental health and suicide prevention system that works for all Australians, so we can't pretend that the job is done. I encourage the government to redouble their efforts to ensure we deliver a new national agreement that actually bridges the gaps we are seeing, rather than delivering more of the same.

The time allocated for this debate has now expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.