Victorian mental health: funding

Extract from Hansard - 15 April 2008 ASSEMBLY

Dr SYKES (Benalla) -- My issue is for the Minister for Mental Health I ask her to immediately confirm ongoing funding for Ivan Lister, the drought outreach worker at Benalla.

Northern Victoria is entering its 11th tough year as signs of an early autumn break disappear. Even the most financially and emotionally robust people have become very fragile and many are in need of professional support.

Locally, Ivan Lister, a knockabout bloke, is outstandingly successful in seeking out people in need, winning their confidence and connecting them to professional support. Ivan and I are in frequent contact, sharing our views on the situation and striving to help people survive the toughest times in living memory. It is therefore extremely frustrating and distracting for Ivan and others to have to plead every few months for a continuation of his funding.

I was involved last year, and it took several weeks and repeated contact from me to the minister's office to win $15 000 funding to ensure Ivan's full-time employment until 30 June 2008. Regrettably, as at today, Ivan is not assured of full-time employment beyond 30 June, even though the need is bleedingly obvious to anyone connected to country people.

The Labor government is either totally disconnected to country people or is extremely callous. The Brumby government's policies and inaction are placing additional stress on country people. The current package of drought assistance measures, which includes the funding for mental health, is discriminatory. For example, the rainwater tank rebate is restricted to households on reticulated water supplies, so people in small country communities and those on rural lifestyle properties miss out.

Similarly, funding for local government drought coordinator positions does not include all shires where exceptional circumstances have been declared: Murrindindi shire is one of those that has made several requests for funding for a drought coordinator without success. The on-farm productivity grants only apply to the 20 most severely affected shires.

This discrimination really angers people. It is tough enough battling drought and bushfires, but when you have an unsympathetic, city-centric government, it leads to absolute despair. The north-south pipeline is the last straw. People in northern Victoria cannot comprehend the Premier's plan to pipe water from drought-stricken northern Victoria to Melbourne to flush the toilets. This particularly galls people when there are other options for solving Melbourne's water problems, in particular increased use of recycled water and stormwater capture. And of course the Auditor-General's report on the whole project has highlighted the deceit and incompetence of the Brumby government.

The Brumby government's inaction and/or discriminatory policies on drought assistance are adding to an already stressful situation. I therefore call on the Minister for Mental Health to immediately ensure ongoing funding for outreach worker Ivan Lister to help connect mentally fragile people with appropriate professional services. It would be extremely helpful if the Labor government reviewed its drought assistance and water policies to remove significant factors contributing to mental ill health