I would like to respond to the member for Greenvale, who questioned what we would cut. I can tell you what we would cut: we would not have strippers on Big Build sites. I reckon that we could clearly cut a few bucks out of doing that. I reckon that when you need to bring in strippers to motivate male construction workers just to turn up for their job, that would be a bloody good place to start, and it is a disgrace that you will not stand up for that and call it out.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): The member for Lowan to resume her seat.
Emma KEALY: We have got $15 billion of wasted money, corrupted money, that Labor are not taking any stand at all to cut out.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): The member should resume her seat when asked.
Michaela Settle: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, on the use of unparliamentary language, in that statement there was a curse that was pretty offensive.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): I anticipate that this will be a heated contribution, and I ask people to be mindful of their language and keep things in a somewhat good manner.
Emma KEALY: I return to the legislation, but it is a pleasure to be able to respond to that, because we do not hide behind cutting out production. In fact we want to implement a royal commission to get to the bottom of it, to follow the money and to get those criminal bikie gangs, to get the CFMEU and to get other unions who donate to Labor to pay that money back. We must see those taxpayer dollars that have been corrupted and rorted paid back to the government as a matter of priority.
Michaela Settle: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I do not believe that we have heard mention of the bill as yet from the speaker on her feet, despite her previous objections.
Tim Bull: On the point of order, Acting Speaker, you determined in the previous contribution this was a wideranging debate, and the member just mentioned that she was referring to the bill.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Lauren Kathage): Yes, it is incredibly wideranging.
Emma KEALY: Back in 2021, about five years ago, we saw the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System hand down its final report.
Michaela Settle interjected.
Emma KEALY: It was about five years ago, and I take up the member for Eureka, who is falsely claiming that we were against it. We were in joint –
Members interjecting.
Emma KEALY: I know exactly how I voted. I voted in support of every recommendation, and I ask the member not to interject if that would be all right. But we actually have supported them every step of the way. What is revealed in this legislation that is before us today is that the government is walking back key recommendations to make sure there is effective oversight on the implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations. This legislation specifically undoes recommendation 44, which was to establish the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. I will quote what the royal commission said:
The Royal Commission recommends that the Victorian Government: establish an independent statutory authority, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, to: hold government to account for the performance and quality and safety of the mental health and wellbeing system; support people living with mental illness or psychological distress, families, carers and supporters to lead and partner in the improvement of the system; monitor the Victorian Government’s progress in implementing the Royal Commission’s recommendations; and address stigma related to mental health.
The legislation before us today directly undoes the work that was put into the introduction of the original act back in 2022 and is exactly opposite to what the royal commission recommended the powers of the commission should be. This is reflected in the introduction of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill 2022. It actually states: The Commission will be empowered to hold government to account for the performance, quality and safety of the mental health and wellbeing system; the implementation of recommendations made by the Royal Commission; and ensuring the mental health and wellbeing system supports and promotes the health and wellbeing of consumers, families, carers and supporters and the mental health and wellbeing workforce.
And yet, when we go through the amendments and the clauses that are in this legislation, it directly undoes the commission’s responsibilities and powers in relation to oversight of the implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations. In fact the clauses in effect flip the system so the commission now reports to the department rather than to the Parliament. We have a situation where the government are the ones who set out what should be the priorities of the commission, whose job was outlined to implement the royal commission’s recommendations, and instead the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission are neutered on many fronts to limit the amount of information that they can access.
It is not about just limiting the amount of information they can access, though, it is also limiting the amount of information that they publish. That is quite clear within the clauses. If anybody who has a passion for mental health could look at that, I recommend that you do, because it is deeply concerning. Clause 116 specifically says the commission’s monitoring and reporting function is limited. You look then to further in this clause and see that the commission’s function to advise and report to the Parliament and ministers is limited. We see this over and over again. We look at clause 131; it is designed to limit the commission’s obligation to include in its annual report a report on performance, quality and safety. It takes out all reference to implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations. We look further down this clause: it removes the power for the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to include any other information determined by the commission in its annual report, so the oversight body that is supposed to be monitoring government to ensure they are implementing the royal commission recommendations, which were to take place over 10 years, is now being cut five years into its reform.
This is why the mental health sector are so distressed and angry with the Allan Labor government. I remember being down at the Royal Exhibition Building when this report was tabled. There were people from across the mental health sector who were invited to be part of that. There were people with lived experience who had opened up – and some, with courage, for the very first time – to share their experiences of working within a mental health system that did not support them, that did not listen to them and where they did not feel heard. They were promised by the Labor government that they would be heard – that they would be front and centre of the reform of Victoria’s mental health system. But all we ever saw from Labor was an implementation of a new tax. We have seen now a walk-back so that the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission is a toothless tiger. It cannot even get information out of the department as it currently stands, and yet its powers are being further diminished through this legislation today.
We also look at how the commission can possibly work with a reduced number of commissioners, when it was highlighted by the then Minister for Mental Health how important it was that we had four voices on the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, including the voice of people with lived and living experience. This was also said about the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing – a co-chair position where there would be somebody who had experience in the sector, somebody with lived and living experience. All of those intentions and promises that were given to people with lived and living experience have now been dismissed by the government, which no longer prioritises mental health in this state. That is absolutely disgraceful, in my view, because you have let down Victorians who need support more than anything else. They need hope to know that when they need support they can access somebody. But instead in Victoria we see services diminish. We are seeing waitlists get longer for mental health and wellbeing support, particularly in rural and regional areas. We see the broken promises of Labor for mental health and wellbeing locals around the state. For me they were mental health and wellbeing locals for Horsham, Hamilton and Ararat that were promised.
We have not even got any money flowing through that yet. It is not designed. The interim regional boards that were established to provide a local voice to provide mental health support and guide government have been disbanded. We look at so many aspects where we were overpromised and government has underdelivered, and we now have a catastrophic outcome in that Victoria’s suicide rate is higher than ever. It is a shameful day in this Parliament that we have a government that would seek to diminish the oversight and the implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations and actually remove reference to it in the governing legislation.
I am so sad for people within the mental health system, those who are now coming forward, because they have always been of the left, and they cannot see a pathway forward under this government. I urge the government to reconsider these sweeping cuts to the powers of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. We need to have a commission that reports to Parliament and that provides oversight over how we reform Victoria’s mental health system, but diminishing and taking away their powers and ensuring that they report to the department rather than have oversight of the government is an appalling disregard for what the royal commission found during their deliberations over what they heard from people who have worked in and experienced the sector. I urge the government to reconsider these drastic cuts, because you are not going to deliver the mental health and wellbeing system that Victoria needs and deserves if you go through with these drastic cuts to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.