Unmet Needs Report

Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the minister commit to fund the Unmet Needs Report findings and, if not, why not? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms PRATT: In July this year, the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist released the Unmet Needs Report, which was commissioned two years ago. The report states that 19,000 South Australians have unmet mental health needs and the cost to deliver the necessary psychosocial services is $125 million per annum.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Health has the floor. Member for Unley, did you speak? Minister, hold on for a second. Member for Unley, did you speak? Did you speak, sir?

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: I am under no obligation to answer your question.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned for the third time.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:47): I appreciate the question because certainly we on this side of the house treat issues in terms of mental health and suicide prevention extremely seriously and we think that there are significant issues that need to be addressed in terms of mental health in this state. We appreciate the release of the Unmet Needs Report, which was commissioned through a consultant through the department, which highlighted issues in terms of one area of our mental health services, which is in relation to psychosocial NGO contracted mental health services.

This is, of course, one of many of the mental health services that need addressing right across South Australia. We have already put a generational increase of investment into mental health in our budget. I am happy to report in relation to this particular area of psychosocial NGO funded services exactly where we have been over the past couple of years, because under the previous Liberal government, these services contracted by the state government were actually cut, were cut by the previous state government by 19 per cent over the course of two years, which is—

Ms Pratt interjecting:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: And that number is higher because you cut the funding to those services.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Pratt interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: When I call order, member for Frome, that means you do not speak further. Is that understood? Thank you.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: So between 2018-19 and 2020-21 we saw a cut of 19 per cent in the funding going into these services, and what's our response?

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: In our first year in office we have increased the funding to these services by 11.8 per cent. We acknowledge that there is a lot more to do, not just in this area of mental health but right across the board. However, you can very clearly see the record in terms of these services—significant cuts under the previous government and now significant increases just in our first year in office.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call the member for Playford.