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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-04-30 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Mental Health Services

Ms PRATT (Frome) (15:09): On the back of the question to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, I find it very telling that he has taken those questions on notice, something he does not do very often. To read into it, I will certainly anticipate the minister coming back with information that is important to our frontline emergency responders in their interaction with mental health services. There is an increase in incidents across not just our state but, in fact, our nation, where public angst and anxiety is increasing in the face of reports of threatening behaviours, and of links to people presenting with mental illness. Our emergency responders, most often SAPOL in our state, are required to respond when they come upon or are called out to incidences of unpredictable natures.

Over the weekend, our nation marked a very sombre moment in reflecting on gendered violence, domestic violence against women, and, sadly, the statistics are trending in the wrong direction. We know now that in 2024 every four days a female will die in a gendered violence attack, and it is indeed a shame. In addressing this startling statistic, it is difficult to know where to start. In fact, how far back do we have to go before we move forward on ending violence against women?

I note that tomorrow in fact the Prime Minister has called an urgent national cabinet meeting for all premiers, all first ministers, to come together to address this, and I hope with every other female in the country that what comes from that meeting are some outcomes and increased investment. In our own state late last year, the opposition joined with women who have experienced domestic violence to call heavily on the government to initiate a royal commission into this epidemic of gendered violence. Many months on, the curiosity now is why the delay in it even coming together to commence its inquiry and, worse than that, why do we have to wait until winter next year for those findings? We need answers now.

In reflecting on the impact of gendered violence and the impact on women in domestic violence situations, I am asking the house to reflect on the interaction and the intersection with mental health, mental illness, mental health services, and what is it that is either missing or not understood in these scenarios? I note with sincerity the member for Dunstan's first speech touched on this for the chamber, and we should be working in a bipartisan way to better understand the link between domestic and family violence and poor mental health.

We are past the point of no return. We are past the point of saying that it might take a death for the government to do something. In fact, the body count is growing, and it is completely unacceptable. We know this year a woman has been killed every four days so far. New data shows that women were the victims in 90 per cent of homicides committed by an intimate partner last financial year, but we do not know what the figures are for this financial year coming—I shudder to think—but we must not forget the women who are the target of non-domestic violence. There are too many examples in our state's recent and distant history. To think that we are still grappling with this issue, how far back should we go to tell their story?

Let me take you back to 2002, 14 October, with the tragic murder of Margaret Julia Tobin, a most respected leading psychiatrist who has had buildings and mental health services named in her memory. What would she actually say now about the mental health system that we have inherited? It is a system that is chronically underfunded. It is a system that is poorly resourced, and certainly it is a system with a workforce that is exhausted and burnt out.

There are too many examples to reflect on. I asked a question of the minister about what understanding he can give the house on the interaction between the mental health services and our emergency health responders, where we have seen too many women peacefully at work attacked in their workplace or murdered in their workplace, and yet we are still waiting on this government to present those findings and help us to understand.

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