Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2021‒22 and 2022‒23 Financial and Performance Outcomes

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (10:36): The Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report tabled in March 2024 in regard to the 2021–22 and 2022–23 financial and performance outcomes provides a great insight and a status update of what is happening in Victoria’s mental health system. There are a number of elements which feed into this. We have got the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, which handed down its interim report in November 2019 and its final report in February 2021. That timing overlaps with the reporting period of PAEC, and we can see what some of the impacts have been of the recommendations of the royal commission but most importantly how those recommendations have been implemented or not.

There are two main aspects in relation to the royal commission recommendations, which are covered off in different departments within this report. The first is around the mental health levy, which of course is managed by Treasury, whole of government, and the second element is around the health department. It is around the actual outcomes and what the impact is for people seeking mental health support within the community and, when they cannot get that support in the community, in our hospitals. Unfortunately we have not got a great amount of transparency over where the mental health levy is going. We see, and PAEC reported on this, that the amount of revenue from businesses contributing to the mental health levy is increasing. Over the latest reporting period it was about $900 million. We see that raised over this current budget period to about $1 billion for mental health this current year. But we do not know where that money is being spent.

We now have a situation where 44 of the 65 recommendations in the final report of the royal commission are overdue at this point in time. By the end of this year a further four recommendations will be added to that list of being overdue, so 48 of 65 recommendations will be overdue. This is despite billions of dollars being spent; we are not seeing an impact on the mental health outcomes. This is having a catastrophic impact on communities. We all know that when mental health is managed in a positive way, when people can access first-line support in their community, they can manage their mental health more ably. They are able to retain their job, retain their family and friend connections and networks and they are able to participate in the community in a more positive way. If they cannot access those primary supports, then it has a flow-on effect. People call an ambulance more often. People will go to an emergency department more often. It will have a greater impact on inpatient admissions and treatment in a psych bed in a hospital. This is exactly what we are seeing in Victoria.

I refer to finding 31:

The Department of Health has not met its target for the performance measure ‘Percentage of departures from emergency departments to a mental health bed … within 8 hours’ over a 13-year period, recording a low of 39.5% in 2022–23.

That is the worst on record despite one of the only initiatives being more acute mental health beds being implemented by the Labor government.

We have also got finding 32:

The undersupply of mental health beds in Victoria and demand for inpatient bed-based services outstripping supply were two key reasons why the Department of Health did not meet its target for percentage of departures from emergency departments to a mental health bed within eight hours by large margins in 2021–22 and 2022–23.

We see this replicated throughout PAEC’s report of March of this year. My greatest concern is we are seeing the delay now of so many recommendations put forward by the royal commission. Recommendations about building Victoria’s mental health workforce are on hold, as are recommendations about rolling out mental health locals right across the state, but particularly in my electorate of Lowan, where there is extremely limited access to mental health support. We were promised locals in Horsham and in Hamilton – we are not getting those in the foreseeable future.

We need to get a financial plan for Victoria, and that is what the Liberals and Nationals have announced today. It is ensuring that Victorian taxpayers have comfort in knowing if they are spending money, if they are paying taxes, their money will be spent in the ways that the government promises, in a transparent way. We will deliver honest and transparent budgets, we will track taxpayer money and payments in real time, and we will also plan for Victoria’s future.