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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Wednesday, 30 June 2004) . . Page.. 3068 ..

that Ms Tucker as the chair and Mr Smyth as the other member of the health committee were able to join me on that trip.

I remember—and I have said this before—asking several times about the facilities that we were seeing and the programs that were in operation. I was continually told that these programs had been in operation for only the last six months. In other words, they had only come into effect after the Stanhope Labor government had come into power and had actually instituted them. Mr Smyth can get up and scoff and say that it is all very easy to do it when we had such a surplus and that all they got was a deficit. However, I do not believe there was ever the commitment by the previous Liberal government to actually put in to mental health funding.

I believe that Mr Stanhope addressed issues concerning the mental health strategic plan in paragraphs (5) and (6) of Mr Smyth’s amendment. Mr Smyth decries the fact that we have not implemented the plan and that we do not have clear targets. Mr Smyth, we have looked at mental health issues in this mental health plan by consulting with those people who are actually part of the mental health community. That is why our plan was delayed, Mr Smyth. Would you prefer that we did not fully consult with them, or is that the way that you would approach it? I would suggest that the answer to that is probably yes.

I note that Ms Tucker’s amendment No 1 seeks to omit paragraph (4) of Mr Smyth’s amendment. I suppose that neutralises the issue, which is a good thing. I do not have an issue with that. However, I think it is erroneous to suggest that there has been no progress. That is not to say—and I think Mr Stanhope said this quite clearly—that we cannot do more. We cannot rest on our laurels; we can always do more about mental health funding.

In wrapping up this debate I want to make a couple of comments which were not in the speech I made when moving my motion. I want to thank particularly Amanda Tobler from Lifeline Canberra for her insight into the issue of self-harm. This issue was raised with me a few months ago by a young friend of mine, and that is how the idea to talk about it came about. I have to say that I was incredibly surprised to hear from this young friend that she had self-harmed. I have to say that she was surprised herself that she had done it. (Extension of time granted.)

Here is a young woman who has everything going for her. She is bright, she is young, she is well liked by those around here, and she had a job. She is not somebody that you would look at and say would be inclined to suffer from a mental health problem. She would be the last person in the world that most people would think had a mental health problem. She wanted me to raise this serious issue because she believes it is a growing problem.

I talked to Amanda Tobler today and I believe that this problem is certainly increasing and that it needs to be addressed. People who self-harm often slip out of the system. They slip through the cracks—and this is something that I did not address in my speech—because they do not want people to know about what they are doing. They burn themselves, they cut themselves, and they injure themselves in other fashions in areas that we cannot see. They do it in the armpits, they do it behind their knees. If they do it in an area that could be readily seen, they will cover it up. They will not admit to what they have done and they will not seek help.

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