Grievance Debate

MENTAL HEALTH

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (15:28): Tomorrow, 1 July, sees the introduction of the new Mental Health Act. The Mental Health Act was passed through this place about 18 months ago, and it has caused a degree of concern amongst various groups, not excluding the ambulance officers, the Police Department and a number of non-government mental health organisations and support groups.

The sad fact is that mental illness is becoming a significant part of the health budget, and we will have to cope with more and more cases of both young people, middle aged and older people suffering with mental health. The figure that is given around the impacts on the economy with respect to mental illness, just with anxiety and depression alone, is $20 billion a year nationally. Those sorts of figures are huge and cannot be ignored. The need to spend more money on mental health is something that this government needs to be aware of. Some progress is being made, but not much. There is ample evidence in the community of the lack of work, support and funding by this state government with mental health.

However, I am pleased to hear today that the federal Coalition leader (Hon. Tony Abbott) announced that a federal Coalition government would provide an extra $1.5 billion to provide front-line services for mental health. The Coalition's real action plan for better mental health would deliver 20 new early psychosis prevention and intervention centres. At the moment there is only one in Melbourne, I understand. Early intervention is an absolute no-brainer in mental health. Much emphasis is being put on preventive health but we are not seeing enough early intervention on mental health.

During the last election campaign, we talked about a program to assist young people in this state called Doctors on Campuses. It is a program that is being run very successfully at Victor Harbor High School. That was ignored by the former minister for mental health. I hope that the current Minister for Mental Health (Hon. John Hill) looks at that and takes it up. I hope that, upon the election of a Coalition government in Canberra in the next coming months (we are told), the state government accepts the extra funding for the delivery of 20 early new psychosis prevention and intervention centres, 60 additional youth headspace sites and 800 acute and subacute early intervention beds that have been promised in the $1.5 billion policy released today by the leader of the federal Coalition (Hon. Tony Abbott).

Mental health has been discussed through the National Health and Hospital framework and the extra funding that was going to be provided, but we saw the Mental Health Coalition, the mental health NGOs and the mental health experts, including many of the professors, write to the federal government saying that they were absolutely disgusted with the lack of funding for mental health, the lack of action that has been taken by the Rudd federal government (now Gillard federal government) in Australia.

It is a wonderful thing to see the Coalition promising an increase in funding for the upcoming years, if they are elected in August. The need to spend more money on mental health has been ignored by the Rudd government (now the Gillard government). Youth mental health is an area that none of us should be arguing over. We should be ensuring that the mental health burden, which is becoming more of a burden for Australia, is at the forefront of all policy decisions. The federal opposition has put forward a good policy: $1.5 billion for 20 new early psychosis prevention intervention centres, 60 additional youth headspace sites, and 800 acute and subacute early intervention beds. It is good policy.

I congratulate the federal Leader of the Opposition on his announcement today. I look forward to a federal Coalition government being elected in the upcoming federal election, because certainly it will be delivering on mental health. It is a sad indictment on the Labor Party, both state and federal, that mental health has been a poor cousin compared to other health areas. The need to spend it is imperative: it needs to be spent today and it will be spent in the future.