Wednesday, 13 November 2024

Motions

Mental health services

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:02): I am pleased to be able to rise and move this motion in my name that addresses some of the issues around mental health and the concerns that many Victorians are experiencing. I move:

That this house, pursuant to part 9.6 of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022:

(1) refers the status and outcomes of the implementation of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, including:

(a) the current status of implementation of all recommendations contained in the interim and final reports, including recommendations the government have reported as complete;

(b) the impact of delays and the implementation of recommendations on workforce and access to mental health care in Victoria’s public mental health system since the royal commission handed down its interim and final reports;

(c) a detailed analysis of the impact of delays and the implementation of recommendations on access to and wait times for mental health support in community and inpatient settings;

(d) the impact of delays and the implementation of recommendations on the mental health workforce, including:

(i) changes to the quantum and composition of the mental health workforce by profession and those with lived experience;

(ii) current areas of workforce shortages by worker category and geographical region;

(iii) mental health worker satisfaction;

(iv) capacity of the current mental health workforce and supporting infrastructure to meet demand for mental health services in Victoria;

(e) inclusion of people with lived and living experience on the implementation of recommendations, including responding to past harm in the mental health system;

(f) detailed examination, audit and reporting of expenditure of the mental health levy and assessment as to whether this expenditure is in line with legislative requirements;

(g) any other relevant matter; and

(2) requests that the commission complete its report by March 2026.

The reason it is March 2026 is because of course that will be five years since March 2021, when the interim report was first handed down. Since that time significant issues have arisen out of the royal commission, and whilst it was lauded by the former Premier and the government as a once-in-a-generation-type issue and something that must be fixed – ‘We’ve got to fix the broken system’ – there were lots of comments around it.

Mr Andrews, the then Premier, described the mental health system as fundamentally broken, and there were many comments from members of the government that this was the most important reform work of anywhere in the nation. I think there was a lot of support from right across the political spectrum in relation to –

Melina Bath: Goodwill.

Georgie CROZIER: There was a lot of goodwill, Ms Bath, around fixing the system. It was clearly identified, the challenges within the system, and that it needed to have the focus of a royal commission to understand exactly what was happening, what was occurring and what needed to be done, and of course the royal commission undertook that very important work. But since that time there have been failures by the government to deliver on that promise to fix that broken system, and years have gone by now where the government said they would support all the recommendations, and yet that has not been done. That is why I read the full motion into this debate – because there are so many issues around what is going on. The people within the system – those stakeholders, those with lived experience and the very many concerned Victorians – are continually raising why the system remains broken, and the government have not been able to deliver on the promise as they told Victorians they would do.

There is no question that mental health services in Victoria are in crisis and, as I have said, that the Allan Labor government has failed to deliver on its promise to fix a broken system and to fix that crisis. In the acute system mental health-related presentations to Victorian emergency departments – that is, emergency departments within the acute system – have surged to a five-year high, with an average of 2184 Victorians seeking help every single week. That is putting enormous pressure on a very stretched system, and it just cannot cope. Less than half of those Victorians that are seeking that care and management and support, just over 48 per cent, are seen within 8 hours of presenting to an emergency department. You can imagine that for someone in a very highly agitated state or for someone very significantly unwell with mental illness presenting like that, those hours can really build; they are very significant for someone who is very unwell. That is a scandal, that there are so many people that are not being seen within appropriate timeframes. These are very vulnerable Victorians who are being failed by the mental health system and by the government because they have not been able to get that appropriate care at a time when they need it most. That is reflective of a system in crisis.

The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System made it very clear that Victoria’s mental health system required urgent reform, and it was, as I have mentioned, Labor that made the bold promises to fix a broken system. More than a third of the royal commission’s recommendations have either been abandoned, indefinitely delayed or not even started. So what this motion does is go to the heart of what is at the core of the government’s failures. It is asking the house to support an independent inquiry into the status of the implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations. It is very simple: it is an independent inquiry to look at why the recommendations have not been able to be implemented. As I said, more than a third have either been abandoned, indefinitely delayed or not even started.

Recommendation 69, which is one that has been spoken about and has been reported on and which I will come back to, really highlights the frustration of some of the people who are directly impacted by the system and who are working in it. They feel like the Allan Labor government has let them down. The government claim to have acted on 90 per cent of these recommendations, but when you actually look at the reality of what is happening and all the government’s own reporting in actual fact in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee back in May, the evidence does not match their rhetoric. We know that they have an ability to somewhat stretch the truth on what is actually happening here in Victoria. We see it with a whole range of statistics and issues that arise. We see that through a lack of transparency and accountability on financial matters, on decisions and policies that have been made, and we have seen it with this royal commission.

As I mentioned, the acute health system is under so much pressure. Again, where are the annual reports for the acute health system? We do not get that transparency and accountability from this government. We have not got those annual reports, and the acute health system is under enormous pressure. In fact the government is amalgamating services by stealth. Letters are going out, and they are starting to talk about what they will be doing: ‘Take it or leave it; you’ve only got a certain period of time to make a decision, otherwise they’ll come over the top.’ I have said this on many occasions: a big centralised health system is not the right way to go, and this is what this government does. It is big government, it is big taxing, and it goes hand in hand with the shockingly appalling big debt that they are leaving generations of Victorians with. Emergency departments are overwhelmed and services are underfunded and overstretched at the moment, and we know that the priorities of the government are all wrong when we look at the hundreds of billions of dollars going into the rail tunnel in the south-east suburbs, whereas these services and these issues that need to be addressed are not being met.

That is why we need to know exactly where the Allan Labor government are in terms of fulfilling these recommendations, especially those ones they claim to have been completed, because that is not what is being actually said is the reality on the ground. I have mentioned the huge debt that Victoria is going to be saddled with because of the mismanagement by this government, but this motion also calls for a detailed audit of the mental health levy, which raises over a billion dollars each year from Victorian businesses, many of whom are struggling to meet the costs of operating in this state.

I mentioned in the house yesterday a business owner in Mulgrave. They have had that business for 31 years and employ 15 people, and they are finding it just too hard to do business in this state. Whether it is the WorkCover premiums, the payroll tax they have got to pay, the utility costs that are going up and up and up, wages costs, the consumable costs – all of those costs are going up. They have got levies like the mental health levy, which applies to large businesses, but these levies and taxes are actually really impacting businesses, whether they are small, medium or large corporates. This levy, obviously, does apply to larger corporates, but it is just the decision that they have to make if it is getting too hard for businesses to actually operate in this state, and that could be a small, medium or large corporation. They are certainly saying the costs in this state are prohibitive to be able to undertake business, and that is what we on this side of the house are extremely concerned about with increasing taxes and what is happening.

With the billion dollars each year that is recouped from business, this levy was specifically designed to support the royal commission’s recommendations and drive that real reform in the mental health system.

But despite raising over $1.1 billion, I think it was, in the last business year, we continue to see delays in vital services like the establishment of local mental health hubs. The government has failed on that. That was supposed to alleviate pressure on emergency departments and enable people to have greater access to care. The government has failed on that. It is $1.1 billion. This is a huge sum of money, so where is that money going to? Where has it gone? When I came into this place we were talking about the desal plant and we were shocked at the couple of million dollars that that was costing taxpayers, and now we just let this billion dollars roll off our tongue like it is millions of dollars. This is significant money, and the government cannot account for it – $1.1 billion. That is why we need to see where that money has gone. That is why we need a detailed audit. We need the transparency. We need the accountability.

Victorian taxpayers, who are paying this money to the government, deserve to understand where their taxes are going to. This is just something that is complete anathema to Labor. They do not get it. They do not respect taxpayers. They do not understand the enormity of the pressures that they are under, and they have got no ability to manage the money that they are demanding, whether it is this mental health levy, whether it is the death duties that are being applied, whether it is land tax, whether it is a whole range of taxes. We have had 56 new or increased taxes since Labor came to government and have been in power over the last 10 years, and that is anti-competitive.

Whilst business and Victorians understand the responsibility to support a system that may be broken, such as the mental health system, they also deserve to understand how that money is being spent, because they know this government wastes and mismanages taxpayers money on a regular basis. It happens day in, day out. This is not something that should be objected to by those that are not supporting this motion, the government and some of the crossbench who are not supporting this motion. Surely you as elected representatives have a responsibility in this place to understand where the $1.1 billion collected last year that is meant to be going towards fixing this broken system has gone. That is what this motion is asking for, to have that audit be undertaken.

This motion goes to the heart of another aspect which the government has failed to do. They talk it up big. They put out their shiny little media releases and say, ‘We’re doing this, and we’re doing that,’ and that is building the mental health workforce. They have failed on that too. They say they will do it, but they cannot deliver it, and they have not delivered it. Surely we should understand exactly what is going wrong, what they are getting right and what they are not getting right, and that is why this commission will look at that aspect, because one of those aspects around part (1)(d) of the motion is the impact of delays and the implementation of recommendations on the mental health workforce, including those aspects which I read out previously, is really critical for the mental health service to be operating in the capacity that it should.

The royal commission recommended creating 800 new mental health jobs to address workforce shortages and improve service delivery. The Allan Labor government has failed to deliver on this commitment, heaping pressure on our existing mental health workforce, who are leaving the sector in droves. The motion asks that the Allan Labor government be held accountable, as I said, for its failure to implement the royal commission’s recommendation to establish legislated regional mental health boards. It does a number of other things. These boards were intended to give local communities more control and ensure services were tailored to their needs. What has the Allan Labor government done in response? They have quietly removed references to these boards from government websites and have failed to legislate them, choosing instead to continue with interim bodies that lack the authority needed for real accountability.

That is what is wrong here. That is what is going on.

Our motion calls for the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to undertake an independent inquiry into the implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations. The inquiry should include an assessment of whether the Allan Labor government has fulfilled its promise regarding the mental health levy, an audit of its expenditure and a thorough examination of how delays have impacted workforce capacity, access to mental health care and service delivery right across Victoria.

In the last few minutes I want to say a number of other things that have been reported. Simon Katterl, who has been a great advocate for those with mental ill health, spoke about the budget and spoke about his concerns. As he said:

Labor promised to fix our mental health crisis. I made the mistake of believing them.

They are powerful words.

For many, seeing the premier promise change bred hope for transformation across the system. Among the accepted recommendations were new services, new agencies, a desperately needed boost to funding via the Mental Health Levy, and a new way of thinking about, preventing, and responding to the growing mental health crisis.

He and others have been let down. He went on to say:

Fast forward to today, and how is the government tracking? They have delivered the “bleakest budget” yet for mental health, failed to ensure paramedics rather than police were the first responders to mental health callouts, failed to establish a lived-experience agency, opened just 15 of the promised 50 community-based centres, and indefinitely delayed the rollout of the remaining 35 centres.

These are his words. He is somebody that is very widely respected, very well regarded, and he wrote those words just a few weeks ago because he feels let down, like so many others do. That is why this motion is so important.

I would urge members to think about what we are doing here. It is ensuring that the government are actually doing what they have said they will do. It is understanding where the $1.1 billion so far has gone and the billions that they will reap in the years to come will go. How can we trust this government if we do not have that accountability and transparency? We need it. We need to understand that, and we are asking for the commission to undertake this work – an independent authority to do the work that is required. I urge all members to come into the chamber and support this important motion.

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:23): It is a real pleasure to rise to speak on this motion that has been put forward by Ms Crozier. It is an opportunity for me I hope in the time that I have got to set the record straight and talk about the significant amount of work that our government is delivering and the work that is underway to provide Victorians with the mental health support that they need. I think I have said in this place more times than I can count that the Allan Labor government is absolutely committed to delivering on every single one of the royal commission’s recommendations, and that has been backed in by record investment, the largest in Australia’s history. I will come back to some of the issues around the levy shortly.

This is a bold reform agenda. It is very obvious that it is complex work and cannot be achieved overnight, and that is why the commission set out a very ambitious 10-year horizon. Of course that work has been complicated by a once-in-100-year pandemic, which has placed unprecedented pressure on our health services, and the mental health acute services have not been immune to that. We understand the pressure on our emergency departments, and we are acting on that in a number of ways, which I will touch on in my contribution. But we are not going to shy away from these challenges. In the years since the final report was handed down we have done a lot of things that we should be proud of in terms of the new services that have been delivered to the community so far. I want to just touch briefly on some of the significant foundational reforms. They are the reforms that are driving the cultural change that is needed across the sector.

We have developed and commenced the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022, and that was accompanied by guidance material for our mental health services and our workforce. We have legislated the role of the chief officer for mental health and wellbeing. We have established the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing. We have established the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, the subject of this motion, which I will talk to shortly. We have reduced the use of restrictive practices in line with mental health improvement programs, towards the elimination of restrictive practices. We have implemented nonlegal advocacy for people who are at risk of or are receiving compulsory treatment. We have mandated cultural safety training in health services. We have funded infant, child and youth area mental health and wellbeing services and supported cultural safety training. We have commenced a program of capital works, which is about providing vulnerable consumers in the system with intensive care areas.

We are also delivering better services and better treatment. We have supported over 12,000 consumers across 15 new mental health and wellbeing locals. It is very easy for those opposite to take cheap shots at us, but the reality is that they are 12,000 people who would not have had a choice prior to these locals being rolled out. They would have to either front up to an emergency department or go to their GP and have the means to pay hundreds of dollars to see a private psychologist or psychiatrist.

We have delivered the first specialist women’s mental health service. We have delivered the first child and family centre and three new children’s locals. We have delivered eight family-led mental health and wellbeing connect centres. We have delivered 179 new mental health acute beds, including Hospital in the Home. We have got the new statewide trauma service, transforming Trauma Victoria. We have commenced work to double the capacity of Victoria’s YPARCs, which are our youth prevention and recovery centres, and we have delivered the North West Women’s Prevention and Recovery Care Centre. We have delivered on key royal commission recommendations for the statewide suicide prevention and response strategy, and we have been working closely with our Aboriginal-led health services to deliver healing centres, and of course that work is quite rightly being led by the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and the Balit Durn Durn Centre.

In terms of emergency departments, Ms Crozier mentioned these issues. We have delivered the Sunshine Hospital, University Hospital Geelong, St Vincent’s Hospital, Monash, the Royal Children’s, Frankston and Latrobe Regional, and there are projects up and running for the Ballarat Base Hospital, Bendigo and Shepparton. The Northern, the new Footscray Hospital and the new Melton Hospital will all have mental health hubs in their emergency departments as an alternative for people waiting for mental health beds. This is really important reform. Of course we are focused on people presenting at our emergency departments in acute mental health distress.

I could go on about what we have done all day, but I want to use the time that I have got left, which is short, to talk about the motion and importantly the establishment of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. We established that commission – it was a key recommendation of the royal commission – and it commenced operating alongside the new act on 1 September 2023. The commission has a nation-leading leadership model. They have dedicated commissioners that are responsible for lived experience for both consumers and carers. The commission supports and promotes the leadership of people with lived experience through its work.

A key part of its role in the transformed mental health and wellbeing system as an entity – and this is important – is that it ensures accountability for delivering on a record investment made by the Victorian government. The new commission has substantial additional powers to obtain and share data, investigate complaints, begin inquiries and report on the performance, quality and safety of the mental health and wellbeing system. And the commission has powers under the act to hold the Victorian government to account for the performance, quality and safety of the mental health and wellbeing system, including monitoring the implementation of the royal commission recommendations. This is a key part of their remit.

As an independent agency, they should not be the subject of political stunts in this place. They should be allowed to continue with their work. They have been in their establishment phase. They have been operating for only just over 12 months. They have been setting up the fundamentals in the short time that they have been operating.

They are keen to focus on building the organisation, the structure and the new enhanced agency. This importantly includes transferring the old Mental Health Complaints Commission work over to the new commission. They are developing a lived experience plan, and they are developing a monitoring and reporting plan outlining how the commission will monitor and report on the mental health and wellbeing system and the government’s implementation of the royal commission recommendations. They are doing exactly what this motion calls on them to do. In the first 12 months of their operation their resources should not be redirected to perform a sort of quasi research function for the opposition. They should be concentrating on the important work of supporting the mental health system, handling complaints and holding the government to account, and they have all of the powers and independence they need to be able to do that.

I want to quickly talk about the mental health levy. Although Ms Crozier was giving a small business example when she was talking about it, it is important to note that this levy only applies to businesses with a national payroll of more than $10 million a year.

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, Acting President – do not verbal me, Minister – I did mention that to say the hardship of businesses, but I said corporations were paying this levy. I was saying it was hard for businesses, whether they are small, medium or large, so do not verbal me.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (John Berger): There is no point of order.

Ingrid STITT: The mental health levy will continue to be dedicated solely to mental health services spending, as is required under the legislation. It is a hypothecated fund. It is estimated that the levy will collect more than a billion dollars in the 2024–25 year, and if those opposite were not too lazy to look at the budget papers they would know that our output funding is just shy of $3 billion this year and our investment continues at pace. The reality is that our government is absolutely focused on making sure that the Victorian community gets the benefits of both the levy, the increased investment and the additional services that implementing the royal commission’s work will deliver.

This is all about politics. The fact that they want to report back on 20 March 2026 tells you everything you need to know about the motivation behind this motion. This is all about talking down this vital sector. Our government is absolutely focused on continuing to deliver for the Victorian people as we committed to doing when we accepted every recommendation of the royal commission, and I urge all members of the chamber to reject this cheap stunt.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (14:33): I am pleased to rise to speak on the motion put forward by Ms Crozier, motion 704:

That this house, pursuant to part 9.6 of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022:

refers the status and outcomes of the implementation of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission …

It goes through a number of those dot points and:

requests that the commission complete its report by March 2026.

I think it is a rather sad indictment on the government that a body with capability, with investment and with expertise that has been set up as part of the royal commission now should be able to investigate comprehensively how the royal commission’s recommendations are or are not being rolled out, how they can positively impact Victorian lives and, if it is not working, what is not working and what needs to be addressed. These are fair and reasonable questions that this government should be supporting.

When we think about mental health, there are so many significant issues that are happening right across Victoria and also particularly in my Eastern Victoria electorate and region.

Over the past nine years that I have been in Parliament I have heard some heartbreaking stories from parents, families and loved ones about not only acute and very pointed mental health issues but also long-term conditions that can start off with anxiety and depression, can emanate from domestic violence or sexual abuse or can precipitate cognitive decline. You can have certainly clinically diagnosed conditions and genetic diseases and also of course the scourge, very sadly, of drug addiction and alcohol. All of these are real and horrible nightmares to many people in our Victorian state.

I was there for the big fanfare of the launch of the royal commission report. It was in the Royal Exhibition Building. It was an absolute floor show. We all went with hope and the promise that the government would actually turn Victoria’s crippled mental health system around, but some years on we are still suffering very badly.

Mental Health Victoria has raised many concerns about the fact that Victorians are still receiving inadequate mental health and wellbeing care. That is certainly in their budget submission put out only this month. We also know that the commissioners have flagged with the government their concern around Labor’s failure to implement the royal commission recommendations in the state budget response. I am quoting from their opening page, where they said to the government:

We understand there is particular frustration regarding the lack of funding for Recommendation 29 – the establishment of a new agency led by people with lived experience of mental illness or psychological distress.

The government has also slowed its rollout of the Local Hubs, and The Healing Place was unsuccessful in its bid to fund the first iteration of a consumer-led community residential service as part of Interim Recommendation 5.

Then it goes on to say:

While the 2024–25 State budget does include some positive initiatives, several key reforms have been delayed and many stakeholders are left with unanswered questions. Some have asked whether the mental health reform is still a priority for this government.

Certainly that is the feeling that many people in my electorate also have when they are struggling to access services. Indeed I was speaking to one of my very good services in Traralgon only today. In the conversation I asked her to provide to me three key things that she wanted the government to know about and understand, and she just said in our region, in Gippsland, Eastern Victoria Region, it is the accessibility of services. She said that they are chronically overworked and understaffed, that there are insufficient services, insufficient operators, and that many of them have closed their waiting lists. They are so full that they just cannot deal with any more people. Those people who are on the other side of that waiting list still have these issues – they still are suffering from mental ill health, they still have crippling conditions – yet this continues to pervade. The government also, she said, needs to understand it is not only the people with the affliction, with the condition, with the mental health issues, but also the carers of those people. Indeed one particular organisation, Wellways in Latrobe Valley, has got over 500 carers on its books at the moment, who are struggling with the burden. It is the next flow-on effect. The system is not supporting them, and it falls back on family members, carers and loved ones.

She also wanted to acknowledge very much the importance of those people with neurodivergence – with autism or ADHD – and ensuring that they have better services, better understanding and better supply. We know that in our school systems many students come in, and while it is not the principals’ fault, they struggle to access the services that they need. We certainly heard that in the inquiry into education.

One of the principals from Latrobe Valley said to me that there are more kids coming in in a greater state of anxiety than ever before and they are having to try and calm them and stem them in order for them to learn. If you have an addled, distressed and anxious brain, there is no learning available to you. These are some of the real things.

We have certainly heard that the government has deferred the establishment of 35 of those wellbeing hubs, many of them in regional Victoria. I will go to the point on education, and I commend our shadow minister Emma Kealy for the work she has been doing over many years. I remember she put out a private members bill on mental health practitioners in schools, and the government said, ‘No, no. What a stupid idea.’ A couple of years later, in a fair desperate state, they implemented those mental health practitioners in schools, again understanding that they are not able to keep up with the supply for our vulnerable students. Thank you to Emma for the work that she has done in that space.

I also want to talk about alcohol and drug dependency and the importance of when people come into the system who are desperate and have made that decision to come off. They have had enough, they have lost their family, they have lost their friends and they know it is the time to change. The government has rolled out youth drug rehabilitation centres, and there is one near Traralgon not far from my office, but that goes to 26. What happens if you make that decision after 26? Quite often you have not burnt everybody until that time. I know during our campaign we were offering and made a commitment to 180 new beds being delivered at six different locations across regional Victoria, Latrobe Valley being one of them and Melbourne. That is another part of this issue: the government seems to just be failing to support our regional and rural Victorians.

I happened to be in my local Latrobe Regional Hospital the other day with my son with his condition. I did not say who I was. I just sat and observed for a number of visits, and those staff, wherever they may be, were doing an outstanding job. This was not in the mental health system, but you can see how busy all of those staff are in our hospitals and that they are not getting that early intervention. Some of the parts where we should be looking at early intervention are our local community health centres and how they can impact with the work that they can do. And yet we had a meeting with them recently, and they feel like they are getting squeezed and squeezed and squeezed by this government. I urge the members in this house: this is a reasonable motion. It is about an investigation, an audit, accountability and transparency, and that is what we should be accepting and voting for today.

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:43): I also rise to speak on motion 704 on the notice paper, relating to an inquiry into mental health in Victoria. I cannot talk about mental health in Victoria without talking about what happened during the pandemic, which has probably been one of the biggest harms to mental health that anyone has seen in living memory at least. I think it also needs to be pointed out that many of these harms were caused by the government themselves, and I still cannot believe some of the things that were done, especially to children, during the pandemic and the subsequent harms.

We are only just starting to see some of these long-term effects that were caused by locking children up for years, taking them away from their friends and from their environment, locking them up unnaturally 24/7 with their families. At the time the only contact that many of these kids had with their friends and stuff was through Zoom meetings or social media, and now the government has decided that social media is harmful and it is going to take it away from kids, even though that was the only way that they could communicate. It is just crazy. I am hearing about all sorts of long-term harms, things like school refusal – kids that after lockdowns never went back to school. They never went back. They refused to.

There are lots of kids like that – kids that developed anxiety disorders and all sorts of problems. The recent COVID inquiry has vindicated those of us who argued that shutting down the schools was an extreme response. Children were never at serious risk from COVID. Frankly, I think one day in the future the state of Victoria needs to apologise to children. My only hope is that these children remember what the government did to them, because it was absolutely horrible.

I will tell you something that I saw. I saw a child, a 16-year-old boy, whose parents thought that he was old enough to make his own decision about whether to have the COVID vaccine. This young man is a very smart young man and he decided to weigh up all the probabilities and all of this sort of stuff about the COVID vaccine and he came to what he thought was a rational decision to not have it. One day he wanted to go into a JB Hi-Fi – everyone knows that kids love them; there are games, there are PlayStations and stuff in there – and his father had to say to him, ‘They are not going to let you in that store. You are not allowed to go in there anymore.’ This child is going to remember that for the rest of his life.

I will tell you about another thing that happened. In 2021 there were a whole bunch of children like this in Victoria. I do not know how many; probably thousands, maybe millions, I do not know. There were a lot of children like this. For Christmas no-one could have a Christmas party. You were not allowed to have a party indoors. You had to show your code saying that you were vaccinated. A good friend of mine went to a special effort to get a paddock on a farm, and he had all these rides and stalls set up so these children who had been ostracised from society by the government could at least have a Christmas party, and they had Santa. One wonders: what are the long-term mental health harms to these kids? The only silver lining in all this that I can see is that one day these kids will be sceptical of the state and will be sceptical of government action, because some of these things that were done to them by the government were absolutely horrendous. I think one day in the future the state of Victoria will need to apologise for what was done to these kids.

I saw many other mental health problems. In fact my office was inundated with them during the pandemic. People who had been divorced and were isolated from their children, marriage breakdowns because of being locked inside 24/7, family violence – all of these sorts of issues –

A member interjected.

David LIMBRICK: I have not forgotten, that is for sure. But today I am in this very unenviable position, which frankly I am quite angry about. I have been given this motion which looks like it might be good, but I have not had enough time to talk to anyone in the sector about this. I want the government’s mission to be to fix mental health in Victoria and the commission’s role to be to monitor the government’s rollout. I want them to succeed in that. I want things to get better, but I do not know if this is a good use of resources. I do not know if this is going to interfere with other work that they are doing, because that is the last thing in the world that I want to do.

I am in this very unenviable position where I cannot honestly stand here and say that I have given this due consideration and this is a good course of action, because I am absolutely terrified of doing something that might interfere with this and wreck it and make things worse, which I do not want to do. I am in this unenviable position where I cannot honestly stand here and say that I think this is good. I am going to be forced to oppose it, and I feel quite angry about that. Anyway, that is my position. The Libertarian Party will not be supporting this motion.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (14:50): I am pleased to rise and make a contribution on Ms Crozier’s motion referring certain matters arising from the Royal Commission into Victoria Mental Health System to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, the details of which are in the motion itself. I will not go through them; they have been articulated in the course of the debate. I am really proud to be part of a government that has taken mental health seriously and that has done so much over the last few years in particular both to put a focus on the needs of Victorians with mental health injuries who are in need of mental health support but also to invest in the mental health system, to take the time and use the powers of a royal commission to investigate the challenges that this exceptionally important issue in our community faces.

I think it says a lot about the significance with which the Labor government treats the mental health of Victorians and the adequacy of the mental health system that we dedicated the time and resources to ask a royal commission to come up with a series of recommendations to help us fix it, and that is exactly what the report of Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System delivered in 2021, a landmark reform road map. We are making huge inroads into that road map. The Minister for Mental Health, in her contributions and in her everyday work, is furthering us along the path of reform and investment that was laid out in that royal commission road map. The task that has been ahead of this minister and ahead of this government since the report of that royal commission has been to rebuild the mental health system from the ground up, and that is exactly what we are doing. We are rebuilding the mental health system from the ground up. We are supporting the mental health workforce. We have not wasted a day in delivering on our commitment to implement those recommendations. Work is underway on over 90 per cent of those recommendations following a $6 billion investment in mental health services. As the minister outlined, because of that work that is ongoing, that investment that is ongoing, the government is not supporting the motion here today.

One of the things that is quite clear in a broad range of health and human services systems but in mental health even more particularly is that achieving better outcomes for Victorians who need support with their mental health rests on having a strong mental health workforce, a mental health workforce with the right skills, with the right training and with the right resources, dedicated to supporting Victorians and their mental health needs. I know, and I know thanks to the important advocacy work of their union, because I have met many of the dedicated mental health workers here in this state. I want to take this moment in this place to acknowledge the exceptional work that they do in providing support services and also to acknowledge the tireless work of their union in advocating for them.

Because of the significance of the workforce, it has been a focus of our efforts. More than $600 million has been invested since 2021 by the Victorian government to stabilise and grow and support and retain those in our mental health workforce. That is the biggest dedicated investment in the mental health workforce in Victoria in this state’s history, and the investment is working. Between 2021 and 2023 we added an additional 1700 full-time equivalent roles to the mental health and wellbeing system, a 17 per cent increase, far and away above the historical averages in this space.

Things like nursing, lived-experience workers, psychology, social work, occupational therapy and other allied health workforces. We know the tightness of the broader labour market. We know the difficulties many different sectors which rely on people to deliver services have had with their workforce in recent years, so I think you can take some solace in the significance of the dedication of this government in delivering for this workforce, that in that workforce climate this workforce is growing.

We are not going to stop there. A total of 2500 new early-career roles have been funded across the mental health sector between 2023 and 2026, and our most recent budget continues the work by investing $15.8 million to develop a dedicated workforce pipeline for the mental health and wellbeing local services. We know that graduate programs are important in making sure that those who come out of study and enter the workforce and have those first few daunting experiences as professionals have support during that time to make sure that they are scaffolded and supported to stay in the profession so they can further develop their knowledge and skills and confidence in the job and stay with it. Graduate programs are the most well-established entry pathway into the system, and the royal commission specifically recommended expanding graduate programs in its interim report, saying that expanding graduate programs will develop an expanded pipeline of well-trained and well-supported graduates. The royal commission noted that the graduate programs are an effective way of attracting a younger workforce and allowing more experienced workers to support, educate and inspire younger workers. What we know is that if you get through the first year, you are more likely to stay, so we are boosting support in that first year for graduate workers so that these workers can continue on in the system where they are absolutely needed.

I want to spend a moment talking about the lived-experience workforce, and again I had the opportunity to meet with some lived-experience workers who visited the Parliament in recent months. The government understands the absolute importance of the lived-experience workforce in our mental health and wellbeing system. Since 2020–21 we have invested over $50 million in programs to provide education and training, career pathways and practice supports for the lived-experience workers, and we saw almost 70 per cent growth in lived-experience workers in the area mental health services between 2021 and 2023. Our investments – Labor’s investments – in the lived-experience workforce are being used to grow and develop the peer workforce. To offer that, there are appropriate, critical and safe supports for people who have walked in the same shoes as those they are seeking to help. Again, we are including in this suite of investments a peer cadet program supporting community mental health organisations to run 12-month cadetships; the lived- and living-experience workforce development program, which is providing training, supervision, support and career pathways in partnerships with around nine different agencies. And there are some leadership development grants and tertiary scholarships to develop emerging and established leaders in the workforce. We know how important the lived-experience workforce is to supporting those in the mental health system, and that is why we have backed them with this nation-leading investment.

Victoria has a range of services. There are some really significant and important services based in Southern Metropolitan Region, including the intensive mobile youth outreach services in Moorabbin. I do not have a lot of time left on the clock, Acting President Berger, so I cannot get into how important those are in detail, but I think you and I both know that across Southern Metro there are a range of fantastic mental health and wellbeing services. They are run by some fabulous staff. We can always do more. This government is doing a great deal to support the mental health and wellbeing of Victorians, and I commend the minister and the government for that investment in the progress on the reform journey.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:00): I also rise today to speak on this particular motion by the leader in the upper house for the opposition, Ms Georgie Crozier, and I commend her for the hard work that she has put in in putting together a very fair and reasonable motion, because we are concerned in opposition, and in fact it is our role in opposition to hold this government to account. This particular motion on mental health has been prepared because we do not have the transparency or the accountability that is required from this government and we do not have it in particular in this area of mental health.

In fact, as Ms Crozier pointed out, about $1.1 billion is collected from businesses that is supposed to be driven into mental health reform. Well, where is this money going? We do not know. We cannot see it because this government is not releasing reports. It is not telling us where it is going, and therefore it is trying to hide something. Because we know we have problems. I represent the South Eastern Metropolitan Region. I can tell you that mental health issues are through the roof in so many areas in my region, which of course covers 11 electorates. It is through the roof, and people are requiring services.

Why do we have problems with mental health? Well, this government needs to take a good look at itself, because we all know that the lockdowns caused all sorts of problems for young people and old people alike in isolation for long periods of time. I can tell you that the day that they put tape around the parks and told children that it was not safe for them to go and play we developed significant mental health and fear in a whole lot of young people that have not yet recovered. You only have to go down and talk to a few teachers at any point in time and you will hear about maybe five or six kids in each classroom that are suffering from mental ill health in some schools. In other schools might be two or three in each classroom. We are not talking across the year level; we are talking about in each classroom. In some cases that is nearly a third of the class that has mental health issues. So the requirements of this government are significant, and it is not showing us where all that money is going. It is not right to be taking this money from businesses that are giving it in good faith – and because they have to – to this government for the issues of mental health. We cannot see where it is going. There is not that transparency. It is a failing government, and it continues to fail in the area of mental health – fail, fail, fail. The only thing that they can pat themselves on the back for is that they actually increased mental ill health in this state significantly.

In my area it is appalling to see what has happened to so many people and so many families that have been broken as a result of mental ill health. It is not funny; it is a very serious situation. Anybody that thinks that this is a laughable moment is just totally underestimating the impact that mental ill health is having on families. It is having a significant impact, and it does not just impair the person that has the mental ill health, it impairs every family member in that home and it impairs the community. It is a really, really serious issue.

I can tell you that in the south-east alone around 130,000 people are experiencing a mental health condition. That is nearly one in 10 residents. I can honestly say that I know many people right now in my region who are having to deal with mental ill health, and at all different levels. You can be an employed person who then has to stop being employed. You can be a child who just simply does not want to go to school. Let us think about school refusal in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region as a result of mental health issues. It is significant. I mean, I have given the data in this house before. We know for instance that 40 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds in Victoria are reporting a mental health disorder, up 50 per cent in the three years since 2021. We know that in my area alone, let us just take the City of Casey, it is up more than 50 per cent since 2019. There is a dramatic increase in school absenteeism, and that is largely linked to mental health. I should qualify that the statistic of over 50 per cent is for the school refusal; the largest percentage of that is linked to mental health issues.

We have a number of issues that we need to deal with and we are not dealing with. I find it appalling that we can have people saying, ‘I do not know whether we should be spending money on looking at this in a commission.’ Are you kidding me? Over $1 billion is coming in in revenue to this government from businesses to be spent on mental health. Let us just have a look at just one section of this motion. Let us take a look at (1)(f), for instance. This is what it is asking for in this motion, and this is what people will be voting against if they vote against this motion:

(f) detailed examination, audit and reporting of expenditure of the mental health levy and assessment as to whether this expenditure is in line with legislative requirements;

We do not even know if it is in line with the requirements when they take that levy from the businesses. We have no idea. Why? Because this government is not transparent. This government is a failing government, they have things to hide, and they are hiding them. They are hiding things from every Victorian and they are hiding them from the opposition because they do not want to be accountable for them. Meanwhile we have many Victorians in the south-east who are having to deal with mental health issues in their family, in their friends and in their community.

I just want to give you another stat here. In 2022–23, in the South Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network, nearly 6000 referrals – 5906 – were made just in that one year. But guess what – they only worked with 3929 episodes, so that is 2000 people that were referred to this healthcare place where they did not receive episodes of care. My question is: why? I want to know why, if everything is being well funded. I mean, there is only so much that a limited amount of staff can do, isn’t there? I am sure Ms Crozier knows this because she has been a nurse, she has worked in this industry, so of course she has got friends and community leaders and people that she knows in this industry. This is her portfolio, but she has lived experience in this area. We know that we are in a situation where we have lots of people that are experiencing difficulty in the mental health wards in the hospitals alone, that they are overcrowded, that they have got drug addicts in them taking up beds where mental health patients are supposed to be. What is happening to all these mental health patients? I will tell you. They get let back out into the community and back into their homes, and that is a fact. This is not rhetoric, this is not spin.

This is an issue that is very real in the south-east and it is very real in the schools. You do not have to go far to meet a teacher who will tell you the sort of stuff they are dealing with, with students pacing up and down rooms. The sort of stuff that you should be seeing in a hospital, they are dealing with in the classroom. Meanwhile this government is receiving all this money, over $1 billion in levies in just one year, and where has it gone? Has it gone into the mental health space? We do not know where it is, and that is why we have put this motion up. I commend Ms Crozier for doing the hard work of looking at the details that we need to have exposed so that we can see. If this government has got nothing to hide, then it should provide the documentation. If it has got nothing to hide in how it is spending its money, we want to see it. That is all this motion is really about. It is saying we need the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to look at the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System outcomes. That is what this is asking for. The motion details some of the things that we need to be able to see, because we are significantly worried.

I can tell you that in some cases crime that is taking place in the south-east, in my region, is a result of mental health. I do not know what caused the terrible situation of the vandalism of all the wreaths that were placed on Remembrance Day in Dandenong. I was there and placed a wreath, and I do not know. I was absolutely gutted and devastated to see the decimation that took place. Was that someone who had something against Remembrance Day or was that mental health? In the situation we are in in Dandenong we would not know, because there are that many homeless people out there and many of them are suffering from mental health issues. This is a real issue. It is a real issue for people in the south-east. Mental health is out the front of my office all the time – people that have been left that are homeless, that are begging, that are in situations that you would not expect to see in the state of Victoria. It is – (Time expired)

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (15:10): It has been three years since the final report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. The Victorian Labor government committed to implementing all 65 recommendations in full. The government is to be commended for undertaking the royal commission and for its early leadership in committing to reform. There was a brief but very significant funding boost and some welcome investment in workforce and infrastructure, and the government should also be recognised and congratulated for that. But we must remember what the royal commission uncovered – that the mental health sector has been chronically deprived of investment and attention. That initial funding boost was only enough to start to make up for the huge deficit that exists in the mental health sector. In order to undertake the scale of reform required, it requires significantly increased funding that is sustained over time.

Unfortunately, the momentum that was building around mental health reform was interrupted by COVID-19, as the minister has described. The pandemic response derailed so many things, including progress on implementing the findings of the royal commission. Sector stakeholders and people who use mental health services are now worried. Foremost, there is little transparency on the progress of the 65 recommendations, and that is the crux of what this motion seeks to address. Key recommendations have yet to be funded in state budgets, with no indication of when they might be implemented, and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, which was set up with a broad remit to implement and oversee the system, has had over 16,000 complaints made to it without issuing a single compliance order.

We have spoken to sector stakeholders who want improvements and more transparency on the implementation of these recommendations, and in their submission to the upcoming 2025–26 budget, peak body Mental Health Victoria have called on the government to provide clarity and justification about the next steps and progress on the reform implementation, as well as to be transparent in budget papers about where the mental health and wellbeing levy funding is going. Sector stakeholders are left to wonder when key reforms will be implemented, if ever. Then last month, in response to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on the 2021–22 and 2022–23 financial and performance outcomes, the government rejected the committee’s recommendation to report on the specific departments, outputs and mental health services or initiatives funded by the mental health and wellbeing levy in future annual reports. This disappointing decision leaves stakeholders and consumers in the dark.

Two years ago the Greens supported the Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill 2022, despite our misgivings about the fact that the bill was amended to remove the legislation of royal commission recommendation 10, to replace police with paramedics as first responders in mental health crises. At the time we met the department and were assured that recommendation 10 had not been forgotten or abandoned but that paramedics were stretched too thin in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic to be able to add this responsibility to their workload. This was fair enough, so we passed the bill in good faith, but two years later it is not clear that any progress has been made, and every time we ask the government exactly what they are doing to properly resource and support our paramedics to take on this important work we are left none the wiser.

And it is not only recommendation 10 that has not been implemented. Recommendation 29, to establish a lived-experience agency to inform and deliver mental health services, has had no progress that we are aware of. It remains unclear whether recommendation 25, to guarantee supported housing for adults and young people living with mental illness, has been implemented. The rollout of recommendation 3, the establishment of mental health and wellbeing locals, has been delayed. Recommendation 4, to establish eight regional bodies to advise on mental health and wellbeing, has been shelved, something I am especially concerned about as a representative of regional areas in Western Victoria. And a number of recommendations related to attracting and maintaining a strong and well-supported workforce have also failed to be implemented.

Unions report that the government recently walked back on their promise to deliver an additional 800 mental health worker positions across all areas of mental health services. They are also concerned that the government may not support the inclusion of staffing profiles in their new enterprise bargaining agreement, which would outline the type of staff to be employed at each mental health care facility. The failure to adequately resource and support the mental health workforce means workers are unsafe and burnt out and makes it harder for care workers to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint practices while also keeping themselves and other patients safe.

I could go on about the many royal commission recommendations that have been delayed, possibly for good, but you get the picture. There may well be many very good reasons for the delays. Mental health reform, we understand, is difficult and expensive. Expanding the workforce, building new facilities and rewriting the intersections between different sectors and the complexities of the law when it comes to mental health do not happen overnight. Stakeholders who are invested in mental health reform I think would be understanding if there were reasonable explanations, but because they have not been getting them, it is no wonder that there is suspicion about the government’s commitment to continuing its initial excellent work on mental health reform.

We understand that one of the key roles of the commission is to monitor the implementation of the royal commission recommendations, and this function is supported by legislation. This inquiry would provide direction in terms of that work, and it can be seen as consistent with their remit rather than contrary to it. The inquiry would simply provide a way to check in on these important reforms, the timeline for implementing the remaining recommendations and the outcomes of the changes that have been brought in so far, including the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022. It would allow us to look closely at staffing numbers, staff wellbeing and what would be needed to ensure the future recruitment and retention of high-quality mental healthcare staff, as well as the broader capacity of the system to meet growing demand for mental health services. It will also be important to look at how Victoria can best respond to past harms inflicted by the mental health system. It would do all of this publicly.

The Greens will be supporting this inquiry referral. I have to say that some of the comments that were made by others in this chamber, particularly some of the comments from the opposition, are ones that we do not support – the last contribution was one in which there was very little I would agree with – but the substance of the motion is something that we can support. I think a lot of the additional commentary was not relevant to what is in the motion, and on that basis we will be supporting it. The mental health sector needs certainty that the state government remains committed to implementing all of the reforms coming out of the royal commission, and this is one way that that can be demonstrated.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): I acknowledge a former member in the chamber, Clifford Hayes.

Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:17): I rise to make a contribution on this motion in regard to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. I have had the benefit of listening to some of the contributions here in the chamber today, but effectively what the motion is calling for is for the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to inquire into the status and outcomes of the implementations and recommendations from the royal commission. I am proud to be part of the Allan Labor government, which has taken strong action and made really historic investments into the mental health system, because we recognise that the mental health system is a critical part of our overall health system. It was a Labor government that established the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

Since that time the government has made huge inroads into that landmark reform, and I might just comment on some of the investments. For example, for the 2024–25 budget year the government has invested $1.2 billion, and this has been outlined in the budget papers. It might actually benefit those opposite to understand how to read the budget papers, because it might be useful for them to understand that level of investment. $1.2 billion per year – we have literally doubled our investment compared to the investment prior to the royal commission. If I recall correctly, it was those opposite who voted against the mental health levy, so I find it quite curious that we are actually here today debating a motion calling on –

Members interjecting.

Sonja TERPSTRA: I will get to the reason why. Again, it is interesting – looking at this motion on the surface you would think that the motion is coming from a level of care and concern, but in fact if you look at the end of the motion it tells you all you need to know about what is really at the bottom of all of this, because what is being requested is that the commission complete its report into these matters by March 2026. Well, that is an election year. It is no wonder those opposite want to run with something in an election year, because they are absolutely transparent when it comes to using mental health as a weapon. They want to weaponise this when what they need to actually acknowledge is that they are failures. They have never invested in anything. I will say it again: those opposite voted against the mental health levy. And I will say it again: $1.2 billion per year in the 2024–25 budget.

We have doubled our investment compared to prior to the royal commission, and that is in total, so far, a $3 billion investment.

It should come as no surprise that these things actually take time. The commission is actually doing its work. The commission has been set up independently of government, and the commission is already undertaking its work to evaluate whether the government is on track in implementing the recommendations of the royal commission. Again you find it is in a similar kind of style to all of these referrals in the past to the integrity bodies to make sure we inquire into and report on things that the government may or may not have done, and what it does is actually ties up the finite resources of those bodies. This is unnecessary because the commission has been set up to do its own work. It is independent of government. They are already analysing and looking at how the performance of this government is tracking in terms of implementing the recommendations. So again, this would be asking the commission to do something that it is already doing, and it would just tie up the commission again by wasting finite resources. This is critically important, because we know Victorians need a mental health system that they can rely on.

I will just talk about some of the things that have in fact happened. Of course we heard those opposite bring out all of the latest and greatest boring hits that we hear from them: everything is the government’s fault, COVID was the government’s fault as well and we created COVID just to inflict pain and suffering on the Victorian people. That is the kind of garbage that we have got from those opposite today. They just bring out the same latest and greatest hits, rather than talking about –

Georgie Crozier:On a point of order, Acting President, I just cannot let Ms Terpstra get away with what she is saying, which is completely false. In fact she is lying to the chamber, and I would ask her to withdraw those ridiculous statements she has just made, because –

Sonja TERPSTRA: A bit tetchy, are we?

Georgie Crozier: No. It is just not true. It is not true what you have just mentioned, so withdraw your comments and get back to the motion.

Members interjecting.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Sorry, Ms Crozier and Ms Terpstra. There is no point of order. Continue and keep to the bill.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Thank you. I will keep to the motion, because the comments that were made by Mrs Hermans went exactly to this motion. She made the contribution, and I am entitled to respond to it, and it is relating to the motion. So you can sit there –

Georgie Crozier interjected.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Acting President, on a point of order, Ms Crozier should either direct her comments through the Chair or stop interjecting. I do not need her assistance.

Georgie Crozier: Through the Chair: don’t lie.

Sonja TERPSTRA: You do not have the call either. That is not a point of order.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Thank you, Ms Crozier. I think maybe you can desist, and Ms Terpstra, you can stick to the motion in hand, and we will proceed without interjection.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Thank you, Acting President – a very wise ruling. I commend you for it. As I was saying – and I will keep reiterating the point – we have had the most ridiculous contributions on all the misery that this government has inflicted upon the Victorian people. But I will tell you in fact what we are doing, and as I said, I will keep repeating it, because it is worthy of repeating.

With the $1.2 billion per year investment that is coming from the mental health levy, which those opposite voted against, we have doubled our investment compared to prior to the royal commission, with a total of $3 billion investment. And let us have a look at the workforce that we have invested in and more than $600 million in workforce reforms, creating over 2500 new early-career mental health roles, more than 1200 scholarships, more than a hundred lived experience roles, more than 90 psychiatry registrar roles, more than 300 psychology registrar roles, more than 1200 roles for mental health nurse graduates or those transitioning from general to mental health nursing, over 900 roles for allied health graduates or general to mental health transition and a 17 per cent growth in funded FTE in public mental health and wellbeing services.

That was not there before. None of that was there before, and the mental health levy that those opposite voted against is what is finding these critically important roles.

I return to the point that I was making before, because, again, those opposite do not care about the mental health and wellbeing of Victorians. All they care about is trying to get a motion through this house which would make the commission do what it is already doing and waste its finite and precious resources, which are directed to helping Victorians get the mental health supports that they need, and have it report back in an election year. They are transparent about that what they are seeking to do. They are not about helping Victorians access the mental health care and supports that they need. We know that because they voted against the mental health levy. We know that because again they come in here with these spurious motions saying they actually care about things when they do not. The commission was set up to inquire into exactly these sorts of things. They are already looking at this government’s performance in terms of whether we are implementing the recommendations of the royal commission.

Nick McGowan interjected.

Sonja TERPSTRA: I will take up the interjection of Mr McGowan on the opposition benches, who seems to like to bring a toilet to festivals for people to sign, which is quite bizarre. In any event what we know is that these people who are seeking mental health services need workers –

Nick McGowan interjected.

Sonja TERPSTRA: On a point of order, Acting President –

Nick McGowan interjected.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Shut up.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Order! Thank you, Mr McGowan.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Sorry, Acting President, I cannot hear myself speak because of the constant interjections from Mr McGowan opposite, and I do not need his assistance.

Nick McGowan: On a point of order, Acting President, I understand or believe, unless my ears deceive me, that Ms Terpstra just told me to shut up. Now, that is highly unparliamentary, and I ask her to withdraw that.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Perhaps you could all refrain from interjecting and keep it calm and just press on, Ms Terpstra. You have got 11 seconds the left.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Another very wise ruling – thank you, Acting President.

Nick McGowan: On the point of order, Acting President, I have made a point of order, and I would like a ruling on that point of order. The conduct by the member is unparliamentary, and I have asked her to withdraw.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Ms Terpstra, could you withdraw?

Sonja TERPSTRA: I will not withdraw.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): You will not withdraw?

Sonja TERPSTRA: No, I will not.

Nick McGowan: On a point of order, Acting President, there is a clear precedent in this chamber on that place. The member should leave the chamber.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): I will have to seek further advice on this.

Lee Tarlamis: On a further point of order, Acting President, Ms Terpstra actually rose to raise a point of order, and while she was trying to make that point of order Mr McGowan was interjecting and she could not articulate that point of order, so her point of order should take precedence anyway.

Georgie Crozier: On the point of order, Acting President, the commentary was very unparliamentary, and that was what Mr McGowan was asking Ms Terpstra to withdraw. She refuses to, and I think that is –

Sonja TERPSTRA: My point of order needs to be ruled on.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): Excuse me, Ms Terpstra. Ms Crozier has the call.

Georgie Crozier: Acting President, I think if Ms Terpstra gets away with this, then what else is she going to get away with?

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Bev McArthur): We will pause for a moment, and we will get the President to come in and rule on your considered unparliamentary language by Mr McGowan and we will get an outcome.

The PRESIDENT: My understanding is that Mr McGowan took offence to Ms Terpstra telling him to shut up. Is that pretty much the crux of it? Ms Terpstra, my advice is that someone can take offence to being told to shut up. My advice would be, Ms Terpstra, that you withdraw, and then we all have a think about what we should determine as offensive or not, because we have had occasions this year where I think people withdrew when they probably did not have to and some people did not withdraw when they probably should have. Maybe we should take it to the Procedure Committee and consider that. I will ask you to withdraw.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Just before I make any further comment, the context was that there was continued interjection from Mr McGowan. Mr Tarlamis made a further point of order about that point, so there is context around what transpired.

The PRESIDENT: What about –

Sonja TERPSTRA: I had made the point that I had raised it –

The PRESIDENT: I will take this as a point of order, and I will address that.

Sonja TERPSTRA: I had raised the point of order that I should be allowed to continue without constant interjection.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, I will take that point of order. If you withdraw, then I will take that as a point of order. If you withdraw, then I will address your point of order.

Sonja TERPSTRA: I will not withdraw.

The PRESIDENT: Unfortunately, you are going to have to leave the chamber for half an hour.

Sonja Terpstra interjected.

The PRESIDENT: I will address that.

Sonja Terpstra interjected.

Sonja Terpstra withdrew from chamber.

Nick McGowan: On a point of order, President, not only was the member not in their place but for them to throw that word out – and I am not even going to give her the dignity of repeating it; there is no basis for that – it is a disgusting, despicable word for her to have used in front of everyone in this place, in this chamber. I do not know what sanctions are available, but I would only encourage the Chair to apply them, because I have absolutely no harbour for that sort of behaviour in a civilised chamber.

The PRESIDENT: I have committed that we should review what people find offensive, and I will do that. I just want to say too that there is a really good ruling – and I will find it – from a previous president. I have not got my rulings book, so I will not find it. But in saying that, it is a great ruling because what the president says – and it is a president I think from the 1980s or something, so it is quite a while ago – is the main thing in this chamber that all members should respect is freedom of speech.

If someone has a barrage of interjections to the point that they cannot even deliver – I am saying either side of the chamber; it is not for me to come and judge. I think sometimes people enjoy the interaction if it is not too personal and there is colour. There are people in here that like that sort of thing, and it is what makes them tick. But I think that there are some points where maybe I need to do a better job in making sure that a barrage of interjections does not impinge on what is a really important right in here, for people to have freedom of speech and to be able to deliver what they want to say even if other people strongly disagree. I think we will just do our best and go from there.

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (15:35): I will endeavour to bring the chamber back to the focus that we have here this afternoon, which is talking about this motion put forward by Georgie Crozier – and I thank her for her work on this – to ask the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to report on the status and outcomes of the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

It is important to note that the longer we wait for Labor to act on the royal commission’s 2019 recommendations around workforce development, the longer the waiting lists will grow, the deeper the mental harms will become and the more pressure our existing mental health workforce will face. Currently, three out of seven recommendations from the interim report that was produced back in 2019 are yet to be completed.

There are significant challenges that we face in Victoria now, and I have no doubt that COVID has played a part in that. Victoria was the most locked down state in the world at one point. We know the impact that the closures had on businesses, on students, on schools. I note too there was a petition started just recently, in October, that has already got nearly 11,000 signatures. It was written by a mum, who said:

I lost my 16 year old son to suicide in April 2020, during the first of Dan Andrew’s record six lockdowns.

She went on to say:

How can a divisive ex-premier in Andrews, who has wreaked havoc on Victoria, presided over the longest lockdowns in the world with the highest suicide rates, be appointed to chair ‘Orygen’, a prominent and respected youth mental health body.

It is interesting to note news reports into that that say the former Premier will receive up to $225,000 for his appointment over the three years, and that is on top of a pension of already up to $300,000 from being a Premier, according to news reports.

Labor said that they would implement all the recommendations of the royal commission, but we have seen them slowly pull away from a number of those. We have seen the impact that that has had. I have spoken just recently about two people in Bendigo that have raised concerns about a new service being brought in at Bendigo Community Health Service. Funding was cut to a program, and I understand that about 150 people were to go across to the adult local but only eight of them have been transferred. There are serious concerns about these changes, when a program was working effectively on the ground and now, with the changes that they are continuing to introduce, they seem to be mucking up a perfectly good program.

This motion also talks about the need to highlight – or uncover, I should say – where the funding, the billion dollars raised every year from the mental health levy, is going. That is something that we see very little of: transparency in government.

When the Victorian government accepted all 65 recommendations, a key spokesperson at the time said:

There is one inescapable truth: we are failing. And it is costing lives.

I really encourage members of this chamber to support this motion to ensure that we assess the quality of Victoria’s mental health system.

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) incorporated the following:

I rise to speak on this motion to require the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission (MHWC) to inquire into, consider and report on the status and outcomes of the implementation of the Royal Commission into the Victorian Mental Health System recommendations.

It was compassion that the Royal Commission put at the centre of reforms to our mental health and wellbeing system.

Compassion for those with lived experiences with mental health struggles, compassion for their families, and compassion for all those who support them. Because it is compassion that makes such a difference.

I appreciate that this motion in part likely comes from a place of compassion. It is compassion I share – our mental health workforce is understaffed and overworked. Access to mental health care in our state also undoubtedly has a long way to go.

The Royal Commission envisaged ‘a reimagined system that will support the mental health and wellbeing of Victorians for generations to come’.

This kind of systemic change is something that takes time and will inevitably encounter hurdles.

While we agree that a part of this journey is keeping government accountable to their commitments, we are satisfied that as it stands, existing systems, including the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission undertake sufficient review and reporting practices.

Our focus must be on looking forward, and working to implement the recommendations, rather than taking resources away. These reforms are still in their infancy – it is important to keep in mind that the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission was only set up last year.

We are also concerned about the reference to auditing expenditure of the mental health levy in this motion.

We hate to be cynical about the intention of this motion but given how often we hear the Opposition talk about their running count of taxes in Victoria, we have reason to suspect they would love to see this levy scrapped.

This would destroy essential funds for rebuilding Victoria’s mental health system.

For these reasons, we will not be supporting this motion today, but we will continue to closely monitor the implementation of these reforms and hold the government to account.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (15:39): I do want to sum up, because I want to respond to some points that have been raised by government members.

In relation to the commission and the work they are doing in implementing the recommendations and tracking what is going on, they actually wrote to the government and expressed in May this year:

… we wrote to the Department of Health and the Victorian Government requesting a briefing to explain the rationale underpinning the delay in implementing key recommendations of the Royal Commission.

We are keen to understand how decisions were made, which stakeholders were consulted, see a timeline for the delivery of recommendations and understand how people with a lived experience will play a key role in reform.

They also said:

… we’ve been listening to consumers, carers, peak bodies, lived experience experts, advocacy agencies and other stakeholders. We’ve heard stakeholders express disappointment and confusion about the future of mental health reform in Victoria, and we recognise that this may be a distressing and uncertain time for many.

That is the commission writing to the government about the government’s own implementation of the recommendations. That is exactly what this motion is about. The minister herself talked about the investment, the $1.1 billion levy from business, and claimed it is in the budget. The budget papers do not provide a breakdown of where that money is spent, and that is why the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee actually asked for transparent reporting of the levy.

A former commissioner Professor Allan Fels, somebody who is so highly regarded in this area and who was the key architect of the levy, has called for a detailed breakdown of where exactly taxpayer money from the mental health levy is being spent, with a lack of transparency fuelling concerns it is not being used as promised. That is from Professor Allan Fels, who was on the royal commission and an architect of the levy. That is what he said just a few days ago, on 2 November 2024.

Just going back to the levy, the minister says this is all a stunt, this motion is a stunt, and I say that is insulting to those stakeholders and to people like Professor Fels, who understand this issue and want to get it right. It is not a stunt; it is a serious motion that is going to the heart of failures and why we need the commission to investigate. Money from the mental health levy, can you believe it, has been reported as income by Cladding Safety Victoria. That is not exactly a well-known mental health service provider. They are the authority that are responsible for the assessment and removal of flammable cladding. That is what this government has done, playing all sorts of accounting tricks with money in the budget, and that is where the mental health levy money was moved around to, and it is reported as being in the flammable cladding safety authority in Victoria. If ever there is a reason to understand where this mental health levy money has gone, the $1.1 billion, that should be it. That is why the government does not want this motion to pass. That is why they do not want the commission to look into what exactly the motion talks about, the detailed analysis of the impact of the delays and why the implementation of the recommendations has been stalled. They wrote to the government asking for that themselves.

This is a really important motion that goes to the heart of trying to get the mental health system right to provide the support to those people that require the support and care. We do not want this to be failing; we want to get it right. But I think taxpayers, who are paying $1.1 billion, also deserve to understand where that money has gone to, as Professor Fels has said. That $1 billion, which comes in every single year, needs to be accounted for. Currently we have no transparency and no understanding, and assertions by the minister and members of the government diminishing the importance of what we are arguing and debating here in the chamber say more about them than they do about those stakeholders that are concerned, including people like Professor Allan Fels. I have to say I want to put on record the work of the shadow minister Emma Kealy, who has spoken to the stakeholders and who understands the issues. I am urging all members to support this very important motion.

Council divided on motion:

Ayes (16): Melina Bath, Gaelle Broad, Katherine Copsey, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Renee Heath, Ann-Marie Hermans, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Sarah Mansfield, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Nick McGowan, Evan Mulholland, Aiv Puglielli, Richard Welch

Noes (19): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, David Ettershank, Michael Galea, Shaun Leane, David Limbrick, Tom McIntosh, Rachel Payne, Georgie Purcell, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Jaclyn Symes, Lee Tarlamis, Sonja Terpstra, Gayle Tierney, Sheena Watt

Motion negatived.