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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-11-16 Daily Xml
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Bills

Suicide Prevention Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading (resumed on motion).

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (17:17): As I was saying before the lunch break, this has come about largely because of the work of the Hon. John Dawkins, who was the Premier's advocate. Then we had the member for Kavel, who was the Premier's advocate. Both are now in senior posts in this house and the other place. Now the Premier has appointed himself as the—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: He's doing everything.

Mr PICTON: That's right. The Premier is the Premier's Advocate for Suicide Prevention. He could not find anybody else in the Liberal Party he wanted to appoint to that position. I am not sure if he has done anything as the Premier's Advocate for Suicide Prevention. I do not think he has taken carriage of this legislation as the Premier in that role. This is an important piece of legislation. I hope that the Premier finds somebody capable of holding that position within his government because I know that premiers normally have a lot of duties to attend to, and I think that this is an important and discrete role that an individual needs to play.

This bill contains the same key elements as the bill I introduced to the house, the first bill introduced in Australia in relation to suicide prevention. It will turn the suicide prevention council into a statutory body, further solidifying the council's role in providing oversight of suicide prevention efforts. It tasks the council with the development of a rollout of the state's Suicide Prevention Plan, a plan that will be reported on annually. The bill also legislates for a suicide prevention register, a database to provide accurate and timely information on deaths by suicide.

Sadly, the opposition did not get the support in the other place to amend this legislation in relation to enshrining into law the issues group on suicide prevention. This is something that was raised with the opposition by the Hon. John Dawkins, the author of this legislation, who was disappointed that the final versions that came out did not include enshrining the issues group that had been established separate from the Council on Suicide Prevention. The government is suggesting that it is likely to continue as a subgroup under the council; however, on the suggestion of the Hon. John Dawkins and in discussions with him, we put forward amendments to seek to enshrine that in the law and the important role that that played.

The key element of that issues group is to make sure that government departments have senior people involved in their departments who are making sure that they are focusing on what they can do within their spheres of influence to tackle the awful issue of suicide in our community, whether it be in health, education, transport or the like. In each area there is work that can be done to help mitigate the risks and to help save people's lives.

If that group were not to continue, the proposition from the Hon. John Dawkins is that that would lessen the impact of the work that he has put in place by making it less of a focus for those senior public servants and less accountability for them in terms of what they are going to do in their own departments and in their own portfolio areas. We know that each of those areas has an important role to play.

This is very similar in a few ways to the work the previous government undertook in terms of health in all policies, because we know that the health department alone cannot be the sole vehicle by which the health of South Australians can be improved. We know that planning policy impacts that. We know that transportation policy impacts that. We know that education policy impacts that. Therefore, all those areas of government policy need to be involved, whether it is in terms of preventing obesity, whether it is in terms of preventing harmful drug use, or whether it is in terms of preventing suicide. I hope that the government's commitments that they have made in the other place are true and that that important work will still continue in terms of the issues group.

Probably the most central key change in relation to this legislation is in relation to the suicide register, because to date South Australia is the only state without a suicide register. As I said in my second reading contribution on my first suicide prevention bill, the register has been called for by many experts around the country. That includes the President of the South Australian branch of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Michelle Atchison, who said, 'Data informs decisions and good data means good decisions.' She has called for that to be in place here and says it should have happened some time ago.

Likewise, we have heard from renowned mental health expert Dr Patrick McGorry, who has similarly called for the establishment of such a register. In expressing his frustration on the delays of suicide data last year, he said, and I quote:

It's a bit like lights coming from distant stars: it's reflecting the past not the current reality. Of course, that's not much use in responding to suicide.

What we have in this current situation is very belated data that comes from the ABS, well after the fact, and that really deprives the government, researchers and other key stakeholders of the information they need to respond to trends and to respond to what the current situation is. If you get that data a year later, a year and a half later or two years later, that severely impacts the ability for you to take action in a timely way.

So having a suicide register, as all other states do, enables faster decision-making, more accurate decision-making and means that ultimately we can have a better picture of what is going on, which may be good or bad in terms of the trends, but it means that it will be accurate. The opposition is very supportive of the establishment of this register and obviously that was one of the main reasons we sought to introduce our separate first legislation, with this now being the second.

I note the amendments made in the other place to remove records of suicide attempts from the register. This has followed internal consultation. I sought a briefing in terms of this from the health minister's office and in terms of the key experts who were assembled, from the Chief Psychiatrist to experts from Wellbeing SA and the department. It was outlined that there is an issue in terms of how you collect this data in relation to suicide attempts, and it would be difficult at this stage to properly put that in a register.

Why that had not been apparent to the minister earlier when he introduced the legislation, or when it was put out for public comment well over a year ago, I am not sure. It would be appropriate to hear an explanation from the government as to why that had not been more apparent earlier. Clearly, in terms of the suicide attempts data, there is some work—as we have been informed—being looked at at a national level as to whether there could be a proper way of standardising the reporting of that because that clearly would be important in terms of identifying trends, identifying issues and identifying regional issues in particular.

But, as has been noted, there are particular difficulties at the moment in terms of how that data would be collected, what the definitions of that data would be, the sources of that information and whether that would be from hospitals alone, which would not give an accurate picture of what was going on, as opposed to the broader sources of healthcare information, particularly primary health care, where that might be available. So clearly more work needs to be done on that.

The feedback we have received from stakeholders strongly supports more timely and robust data in relation to suicide attempts. While they note the government's advice on the current limitations of pulling together data on suicide attempts within the register itself, they claim they have been assured by the government that suicide attempts data will continue to be collected outside of the official register. Stakeholders seek assurances that the bill will allow for such data to be included in the register via regulation in the future.

This is clearly a very important area of policy. I am sure the lives of all of us in this house have been touched in awful ways in terms of the impact of suicide, whether it be friends or family, and we need to do everything we possibly can. I am sure all of us, in terms of representing our communities, have felt and seen the impacts of suicide in our local communities that we represent in this house.

Is this going to be the answer to preventing all suicides in South Australia? Of course not, but this is another step in the right direction. This is a step that enshrines the importance of suicide prevention in our laws. It sets up official government bodies that will make sure that suicide prevention remains a priority and makes sure that we are getting the data that gives us accurate information to make appropriate decisions to save more people's lives.

Of course, this cannot be where suicide prevention efforts stop. For this bill to have real impact, there needs to be a much broader approach. This needs to be taken seriously at the highest level. The suicide prevention council must have the resources it needs to develop and implement the Suicide Prevention Plan to provide frank and fearless advice to government. The plan developed by the council must be taken very seriously by the government. The minister needs to take on board that advice that they have been provided, and we need to do everything we can across the whole of government, and also working with our communities on a local level, to make sure that we can prevent suicide and that, when people need help, ensure that help is available.

I have had the opportunity recently to be briefed by Lifeline, and some of the figures that they have presented in terms of the impact of the pandemic and the number of calls that they have had are shocking. That is not just in states such as New South Wales and Victoria but also here in South Australia. We need to make sure that all those bodies are properly resourced and that people can get the care and the help they need when they want it and they need it. While very important, this legislation is just one element that needs to be put in place to help save those people's lives and prevent the awful impact on families, on communities and on regional areas that is suffered when suicide happens.

With those words, the opposition supports the legislation. We hope that this will make a contribution to help save the lives of South Australians. Once again, I particularly thank the Hon. John Dawkins for his work in putting forth this legislation and his contribution to the parliament in raising the importance of this issue.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (17:30): On behalf of the minister who represents the Minister for Health in this place, I commend the bill to the house. If it is the wish of the opposition, we will go into committee.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

In committee.

Clause 1.

Progress reported; committee to sit again.

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