MATES in Construction

Mr GEE (Taylor) (15:20): MATES in Construction was created in response to the high level of suicide in our construction industry. Currently, it is almost 190 deaths per year across Australia, and this represents more than one death by suicide every two days. MATES in Construction is a respected organisation that has delivered awareness training to over 20,000 workers in South Australia and almost 200,000 workers Australia-wide. Its purpose is to make construction workers aware of the nature of suicide and provide practical guidance on how to access help for themselves and how to identify when other workers, their workmates, are experiencing suicidal thoughts and need help.

The organisation has many industry partners and appointed the Hon. Dean Brown AO as its honorary patron in 2017. MATES in Construction's training course, the Life Skills Toolbox, is a three-day training course that is widely seen across the construction industry as being responsible for the prevention of many suicide deaths.

The recent decision by this state government's Construction Industry Training Board to cut $50,000 from MATES in Construction is a disgrace and may lead to more deaths. It is a further disgrace that this announcement was made on the eve of World Suicide Prevention Day, Tuesday 10 September, and two days before R U OK? Day, Thursday 12 September. Every member knows these are days when everybody is encouraged to check with their mates that they are okay. The construction industry workforce is currently 88 per cent male and, as we know, men are more reluctant to seek help.

An article published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found evidence that 'young males have poorer suicide prevention literacy than older groups; however there is evidence that they are amenable to belief change, and also report greater endorsement of the belief that the workplace has a role in addressing mental health.' The article continued, 'This suggests receptiveness to workplace suicide prevention intervention and points to opportunities to implement workplace programs to improve suicide prevention literacy among young men.'

The research tells us that governments should be investing in suicide prevention programs as a preventative health program. Preventative health is something that as a society we do not invest in anywhere near enough and this new state government has a poor record. First, it was the funding cuts to Shine SA and other health services that delivered several preventative health programs, and now we have this cut to MATES in Construction.

It is unlikely that construction workers will be able to participate in this important course, or the course will have to be delivered in a different way that would lessen the impact of the training. The hypocrisy of this Liberal government is no surprise. On the one hand, the Premier appointed the Premier's Suicide Advocate, namely, the Hon. John Dawkins from the other place, who I know is very supportive of suicide prevention programs and must have been very disappointed with this decision.

But, on the other hand, the Premier axed the MATES in Construction mental health funding following a site visit to the Riverbank development on R U OK? Day. What a disgrace! I have to tell you that when the Premier went over to the Riverbank construction site, he took a whole heap of people over there during suicide week. The workers over there—I spoke to those workers—were very pleased about the Premier's visit. But when they found out about the cut—and I made sure they all knew about the cut of $50,000—they were not impressed with this government at all.

This decision continues this hopeless new government's disregard for the health of workers. They tried to repeal the labour hire licensing scheme, which was put in place by the previous government to protect labour hire workers from exploitation. This scheme, which has now come into effect, includes stricter penalties for wrongdoers and a requirement for all labour hire companies to be licensed. This is a very important change to protect workers, but it was almost disregarded by this government simply because their mates, the owners of these labour hire companies, do not like the laws that support workers.

In addition, we all know that our health professionals are working in poor culture by fatigue, bullying, double shifts and understaffing. These workers and all South Australians deserve better.