My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Mental Health, and the action I seek is for immediate funding to be provided to establish a mental health local in Horsham. Back in 2021 the royal commission handed down its final report, and within that was a recommendation to roll out mental health locals right across the state of Victoria. In the early days the Labor government accepted these recommendations, and in fact on 29 May 2023 the now Deputy Premier made the statement that they would be rolling out mental health locals in Horsham and Ararat and also Warrnambool, Hamilton and Portland.
In this release, I quote the now Deputy Premier: Delivering on the promise we made to Victorians last year, the Labor Government will deliver 50 Local Services across Victoria by the end of 2026 … Well, we are now almost at the end of 2026, and there is no sign of a mental health local in my electorate of Lowan.
This is not just a fickle promise that can be thrown away like Labor throw so many of their promises away, including whether or not they will contest the Premier or they will help her become the next female Premier of the state; this is something that is so important to our local people.
I met with a social worker last week who told me that in our region we have a suicide rate which is double that of the state average. Across our region we have heard from Mental Health Victoria, who have specifically pointed to the Grampians region as having insufficient access to mental health support services. We are extraordinarily underdone, and this is a region that frequently faces disasters like bushfire and floods; we might also have pestilence, with plagues coming through, or drought.
Our region certainly is being hit hard, and we have got other challenges as well – decisions by government that are really having an impact, particularly on farming communities. They are feeling like their voices are not heard and their agricultural land is being treated as vacant land, with major projects being rolled out without consideration of the impact on their business, on their community, on the local economy and also on the agricultural capability of the state. It is having a massive impact on the mental health of our local people.
Even though we know there is an apology on Friday for people who were sexually abused at Horsham Technical College, there are no mental health supports that have been established for those people, and it has been a very, very difficult week for the Wimmera community in particular. I ask for the minister to immediately fund the mental health local to make sure our local people can access the mental health support that they need and deserve.