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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-09 Daily Xml
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REACHOUT

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:37): I rise today to speak about two matters important to residents of Mount Gambier and the surrounding area. First, let me focus on the best of efforts on behalf of the local community. Recently, I was contacted by Sarah Nelson, a young, enthusiastic, vibrant and passionate young lady from the Mount, who wanted to speak to me about mental health issues. She sought me out, knowing of my advocacy of the CORES program.

Sarah is a motivated student at Tenison Woods College and a member of the Youth Parliament. I was only too happy to travel to Mount Gambier to meet with her and discuss both CORES and ReachOut, a mental health resource for young people aged between 14 and 25 years of age, of which she is a great supporter.

Reachout.com.au is a website that allows young people suffering from a range of mental health issues to find, explore and connect. Those concepts run as follows: 'find' information and resources about the particular mental health issue; 'explore' allows you to find information based on how you are feeling that day; and 'connect' provides helpful resources and contact information to allow you to interact with others suffering similar problems or to seek professional help and guidance. It is an easily accessible and interactive website, which is aimed at helping young people.

Reachout.com.au was launched in 1998 in response to Australia's rising youth suicide rates. It encompasses facilities such as video blogs and forums where members can talk to one another about problems they may be having. There is also an interactive game called ROC (ReachOut Central), which provides users with issues to solve, giving them multiple choice answers. The most recent user profiling of the ReachOut program, with a total of 2,291 participants, has shown promising results.

After using ReachOut, 70 per cent of users said that they now knew where to go for help regarding mental health issues; 61 per cent of ReachOut users reported that the site made them feel as though they were not alone, providing them with a sense of unity among members of their own age; and 74.6 per cent of participants said that ReachOut was 'straight up and honest', an attribute that any young person feeling depressed or threatened can identify with and therefore feel safe using the site. These statistics show that ReachOut is having a positive impact on those in need of answers, someone to talk to and peers who share their feelings, and I am particularly pleased that Sarah took the opportunity to seek me out to brief me on this project.

In times where youth engagement in politics and current affairs is at an all-time low, and political and community apathy is an all too common notion, Sarah's passion, intellect and genuine interest in helping her community can only be contrasted to the Leader of the Government in this place, the Hon. Bernie Finnigan, who has abandoned his home town and grass roots community in favour of his own political ambitions.

The day the Hon. Mr Finnigan was parachuted to prominence in this place, an estimated 3,000 people and 70 trucks staged one of the more impressive protests I have witnessed in my time in this place. They are, of course, begging the government to reconsider its position on selling up the three rotations of timber. We all know this is a foolish idea and, despite the Hon. Mr Finnigan now taking a senior position in government, he has turned his back on the very industry that underpins the South-East.

Let us be clear that the government has made this decision, despite the fact that we have been told that it depends on a regional statement. That is a farce. People were given about two days' notice when they went down there. I say to the Hon. Mr Finnigan: real leadership requires strength, it requires courage, it requires you to be principled and to lead from the front. He has a choice to do the right thing and go back to his home town and the people he purports to represent, or blindly follow his soon-to-be-gone Premier.

I look forward to going to Mount Gambier tomorrow night to discuss CORES and ReachOut, and I hope that we, in the future, can get more caring, community minded individuals like Sarah Nelson in this place—someone who cares dearly for her region and its future.

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