Page 218 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 February 2016
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people bereaved by traumatic death including deaths by suicide that are under investigation by the coroner.
I recognise the importance of this proposed referral. The amendment that I have moved seeks to establish more formalised terms of reference, which I think are entirely consistent with the aims, objectives and concerns Mrs Jones has raised in her substantive motion. It makes the proposed change that the terms of reference in my amendment form the basis of a referral to the Standing Committee on Health, Ageing, Community and Social Services to look into the matter that I have outlined in my amendment. The purpose of this is to reflect the fact that we have a standing committee already established in this place. This is fundamentally a health matter and it is a great opportunity for the standing committee to undertake that work.
I anticipate that the standing committee, should this referral be made, would be able to report back to the Assembly by the last sitting day of this year. I think there may be a suggestion from Mrs Jones that that should be the last sitting day of this term. I would certainly have no objection to that if Mrs Jones wanted to make such a proposal. In practical terms that would probably be the reporting date in any event given that the committee will cease its membership with the election later this year.
I hope that out of this inquiry process we can continue to build confidence that, if we talk about suicide more openly, if we encourage help-seeking behaviour, if we build individual and community connectedness and resilience and if we have better access to better services, we are all contributing to suicide prevention. Government can only be one part of the solution; it needs fundamentally to be a whole-of-community response striving to be inclusive of diversity, building resilience and connectedness. All of these things help to prevent the tragedy that is suicide. I commend the amendment to the Assembly.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.54): I thank Mrs Jones for bringing this motion forward today. It is a welcome opportunity to discuss this very important and yet confronting issue in our community. What I have learned in recent years in talking to many of the service providers around town and people who are involved in these issues is that too often the issue of suicide is not discussed, that it has been a taboo issue that people have found difficult to talk about.
I think one of the very positive developments in recent years has been an increasing willingness for people to speak about this, particularly people who have suffered from mental health problems who have contemplated suicide or perhaps have even attempted it and who have spoken about their experiences. That very brave act has helped other people develop a greater appreciation or perhaps seek support as the case may be. That is a positive thing and I think having a community like this is part of that growing discussion that will help us confront this very challenging issue.
Mental health is certainly a growing concern in our community; for young people in particular it is an increasingly complex area of social, biological and environmental factors. Similarly, mental health funding is a complicated mix of state and federal moneys mixed in often with other community service programs, again, particularly in the case of youth issues.
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