MRS WENDY CARVER, CEO, HARBOUR TO HAWKESBURY LIFELINE CENTRE: Well, good afternoon, everyone. My name’s Wendy Carver. I’m the CEO of Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury. And it’s my very great pleasure to welcome you all here today to our Lifeline centre at Gordon. I’m quite sure, actually, no, this is the very first time we’ve had such distinguished guests at our centre, particularly the Prime Minister of Australia.
On behalf of Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury, I’d like to now acknowledge that this meeting today is being held on the lands of the Darug people of the Kuringgai Nation, who are the traditional custodians of the land that we are standing on today and that we deliver our Lifeline services in. We recognise their continuing connection to land, water, community, and we pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging.
I would also like to acknowledge those with suicide-lived experience and lived [I think?] experience. We acknowledge the lives lost to suicide and we recognise those struggling today or in the past with thoughts of suicide, mental health issues or crisis situations. We acknowledge those who care for their loved ones and those experiencing the pain of bereavement through suicide. We respect the expertise of those with lived or living experience and their contribution to the work that we do at Lifeline.
I’d now like to formally welcome the Prime Minister, the Honourary Scott Morrison to Lifeline. Paul Fletcher, the Member for Bradfield, who we know very well here at Lifeline and Minister, who is also the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities, and the Arts of Australia. Colin Seery, the CEO of Lifeline Australia. John Brogden, Lifeline’s Patron, who I don’t think is a stranger to any of you here today, and Lifeline colleagues, friends and volunteers. And I’d now like to pass you over to Paul Fletcher. Paul.
THE HON. PAUL FLETCHER MP, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS, URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE, CITIES AND THE ARTS AND MEMBER FOR BRADFIELD: Well, thank you very much, Wendy. It’s great to be here with you, with the Prime Minister, with John Brogden as the Chair of Lifeline, and as Member for Bradfield, I’m very, very pleased to have the Prime Minister here and for the significant announcement he will shortly be making.
Can I say what a wonderful service Lifeline is, and particularly this centre here at Gordon for Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury. I have visited here on a number of occasions, seen the wonderful work that the volunteers do, and just now we’ve had the chance to be briefed on the Lifeline model, spoken with some of the telephone counsellors, and it really is a very practical and effective model. Previously I served as Minister for Social Services, and I know well from that just how valuable the role that Lifeline plays around Australia. And can I particularly say how proud I am of the volunteers. Many of the volunteers here at Gordon are constituents of mine in Bradfield but I know there’s people who’ve certainly come from further afield than that. All of them brought together by a passion to help their fellow Australians in a very effective way.
So I’m just delighted to be here with the Prime Minister, with Wendy Carver, with John Brogdon, and with everybody else here who does such great work. Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Paul. And thank you for your welcome. Thank you for the welcome to country here as well. Great to be here with you all. John, it’s great to be here with you. We’ve been friends for a very long time. And can I thank Colin, can I thank everybody who’s involved in the Lifeline family, and I think that was the key message that came across to me today was the, was this is a family of volunteers, of community which is just showing that love of a family to Australians all around the country. Yes, we’re here in in Gordon in the leafy North Shore suburbs of Sydney, but the calls being taken here are being taken from all around the country. They’re being taken by people who are flood victims up in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, or people who’ve just come off shifts in the mines up in Western Australia, or down in Tasmania – wherever they’re calling from, they’re calling into here and centres just like this all around the country.
You know, each year, some 65,000 Australians attempt suicide. Just let that figure sink in – 65,000 Australians attempt suicide, and sadly over 3,000 Australians die by suicide. And that equates to the loss of nine Australians every day to suicide. These statistics, you can write on a page, but they’re they’re the lived experience of so many families and communities all around this country, and with every one of not just those 3,000 fatal cases, but those other 65,000 cases. Just then multiply that into the friends and the family and the communities that are around them, and this is something that impacts on our society right across the country.
There is no part of this country that is not touched by mental health issues, no part of the country which is not touched by the threat of of suicide, suicide ideation, or indeed deaths by suicide. You can be from any walk of life. It doesn’t respect your bank account, your gender, your ethnicity, your language, your job, your age. It doesn’t respect any of that. It can come and touch anyone, anywhere in this country. And that’s why I’ve made this a very important priority of my Government – right from the outset, when we appointed the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Suicide Prevention Adviser; right from the outset, when we adopted our towards zero goal. And there are many parts of the Government and the agencies we support that play a role in that effort, and Lifeline is a very important one of them.
We have funded some $2.3 billion just in the last Budget over the next four years for the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Mental Health and Suicide Plan. Mental health investment is some $6.5 billion in our health portfolio now – $6.5 billion spent every single year, and that number is going up, and that is up from $3.3 billion when we first came to Government. Our Government has always taken this issue incredibly seriously, and the community has likewise. And this works together.
We were talking before around the table, more people are talking about mental health at the moment, and that is fantastic. But it also means that there’s a greater awareness and more people need to be equipped to hear and respond and deal with these issues. And we’ve seen this accentuated during the course of the pandemic. As we stared into the abyss of the pandemic, we knew of the many threats, the risk to life, the risk to people’s livelihoods, the economic damage and toll that would be taken. But we also could see beyond those immediate things and see this is going to impact people’s families, it’s going to impact their isolation, it’s going to impact their their mental well-being. And it’s going to put stresses on people in this country that we haven’t experienced for a very, very long time. And so we were very concerned. And that’s why we responded with record levels of investment into services just like Lifeline, whether it was Beyond Blue or Kids Helpline, or any of the important mental health services that are provided around the country. Can I tell you, they responded. The more we pumped into them, the higher their calls went up. Some 22.3 per cent of calls to Lifeline increased between 2019 and 2021. 1.2 million calls for help in this [2021-22] financial year. Now this is a, this is an extraordinary, an extraordinary level of response. So, sorry I should say, from 2021 [sic] to 2022 [sic] there were 1.2 million calls. So this was a very big increase. And what happened during the pandemic was that despite this greater need, we did not see the level of suicide in the country rise. We actually saw it fall at a national level, at a macro level.
Now I know in particular communities in particular places, that is going to be different. But as a nation, during one of the biggest pressures and threats to people’s mental health in this country we’ve ever seen since the Second World War, likely, we actually saw the rate of suicide in this country actually decline, and the people who did that are on the phone right now. They are the lifesavers. I’ve just come from a surf lifesaving club in my own electorate down in Cronulla. Now they’re lifesavers of a different kind down there, but they’re, they could be just as much wearing those red and yellow hats in there right now because they’re out there saving lives on those calls every hour of the day, 24-7.
And that’s why, as we’ve seen Lifeline respond to the challenge of this crisis and we’ve seen how amazing the organisation is, we want them to be able to stay at the level of capability that they’ve risen to and go further. And so today we’re announcing an additional $52.3 million in Government funding over four years in the Budget, which will be handed down by the Treasurer, to enable Lifeline to meet that increased demand for crisis support and suicide prevention. This is combined with an extension of the annual funding of $15.5 million per year. That means over the next four years, Lifeline’s call crisis service will have the support of some $114.2 million.
Now that is a, that is a vote of confidence in the volunteers who I’ve had the privilege to meet today in the services and support that sit around Lifeline. We see Lifeline as an essential partner in our towards zero goal on suicide prevention in this country, and I want to thank them all again. I want to thank you, John, for your leadership of the organisation and all of those who are involved. They are great Australians. It’d be great if we could give every single one of them an AO or something like that I want that. But you know …
MR JOHN BROGDEN, LIFELINE AUSTRALIA PATRON: I’ll tell them you said that.
PRIME MINISTER: I’m about to get a lot of applications. But, you know, having met with them today, it’s not why they come. They’re not looking for reward. They pay to be trained. They pay to volunteer and be here. And so they’re not looking for the recognition. But I’m pleased to offer it, because they are great Australians.
A couple of other points I’ll make after John speaks, and then we’ll take some questions.
MR JOHN BROGDEN, LIFELINE AUSTRALIA PATRON: Look, thank you, Scott. Thank you, Prime Minister. Good to see you again, Fletch. And thank you, Wendy, and all your team, staff and volunteers here at Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury. I’m joined by Colin Seery, who’s our CEO, and on behalf of our Chair Jacinta Munro, who can’t be here, she’s based in Melbourne, I want to thank you all very much for coming.
This is a very historic day for Lifeline across Australia. It’s a fantastic day for us, in fact. And I want to start by joining the acknowledgements, particularly for those of us who have living experience of mental illness. And I do want to acknowledge Scott that I think the first time I met your mum and dad we were at the Wesley Centre, where they went to church, and the Wesley Centre in Sydney is where Lifeline started in 1964. So there’s a family connection there for you.
When I became the Chairman of Lifeline about 10 or 12 years ago, we were receiving 550,000 calls and we were answering two thirds of them. This year we’ll receive 1.1 million calls and we’ll answer 90 per cent of them. When I joined the Board of Lifeline, we were receiving $9 million in federal funding. Today, with this announcement, we’ll receive just under $30 million in public funding.
What we’ve noticed is our calls have got more in volume, but also greater in distress, and we have had from the time of the bushfires through pandemic, which is ongoing, and then, of course, into the floods we’ve seen recently, on average an increase of 2,400 calls a day to 3,100 calls a day. And Scott, we think that’s the new normal. And as you said, when you raise awareness of mental illness, when we yell from the rooftops, “Please call Lifeline,” and people call us, it’s a challenging thing, but it’s a good thing, because people have heard the message it’s okay not to be okay and don’t suffer in silence. Lifeline’s there for you, a whole lot of other organisations are there for you. Our biggest day in the history of Lifeline was New Year’s Day, over 3,700 calls. And we’re an essential service in Australia, we’re a triple 0, or, as you say, we’re we’re life lifesavers without the, without the gear on, but we do an incredible role.
We have over 12,000 volunteers around the country and whether they’re on the phones or on our text service or whether they are in fact in our shops, in our op shops and our book sales, doing all those sorts of stuff. We are a community-based organisation and the one thing I would say, Scott, is that our money goes a long way because we can back it up with volunteers and we can get volunteers into the field who help us answer calls every day. We deal with 10 or 20 people every day who are so suicidal that we make the assessment that we need to keep them on the phone and send the police and ambulance to where they are. So that’s not the majority of our calls, but we deal with life and death every day, and we’ve been doing it for, we’re in our 60th year now, and we’re doing it with great pride and great contribution.
The money today helps to take us to the next level. It helps us to answer more calls, to train more volunteers, to have more support for our volunteers. It helps us to continue from the money you gave us a little while ago, Scott, an extra million dollars to run our new text service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So we’ve been doing the same thing for about 60 years, which is looking after people and listening to them. We used to do it by phone alone, we’re now doing phone and text. And help us innovate as well, because we need to be ahead of the game in terms of how we see our people.
So as somebody who has depression, somebody who has suicidal ideation, somebody who’s tried to kill themselves, I can’t tell you how important Lifeline is, and Scott I can’t tell you how important this money is. This helps us do more. It helps us save more lives. I used to think when our calls went up, that was a bad thing. Now I think it’s a good thing, because it’s people reaching out and getting help and not suffering in silence, and they’re going to keep calling because we’re going to keep asking them to call, and you’re going to keep asking them to call, and we’ll be there. And this money is extraordinary. It makes a massive difference to us right across Australia, about 40 centres right across Australia, and with those volunteers and paid staff and the service, we’re there for people 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and and we’re anonymous. We don’t judge you. We just want to get you through that crisis in your life and make you better.
So Scott, on behalf of all of the Lifeline family, thank you very much. Thank you to the Government and thanks for putting this in the Budget on Tuesday, and we’re so thrilled and so grateful. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. And John is right, the Budget is on Tuesday, and the Budget was locked a few days ago, but that Budget is all about understanding what Australians are facing right now, but also the economic challenges ahead. It’s a plan which is about dealing with the cost of living relief now, but also an economic plan to deal with the challenges that we know are ahead. We’ve got record investments in essential services and this is a great example of what those essential services are, because you can’t pay for essential services unless you run a strong economy. And that’s what this Budget is all about. Strong national security and defence also will be featured in the Budget, but at the end of the day, a stronger economy means a stronger future.
I’d also just make one other announcement, and that is that you would have seen the Treasurer today that and I’m sure right across Australia for those who are self-funded retirees, they’ll be pleased to know that as part of this plan for a stronger future, the Government is extending the 50 per cent reduction in minimum drawdown requirements until 30th June 2023. For those who I know that is a very big part of how they manage their daily finances, self-funded retirees, in particular, are affected by that. They’ve saved for their retirement, and they want to be able to ensure that they can protect the assets they’ve built up to ensure that they can support themselves into the future as well. So that will be extended out beyond to the 30th of June 2023. And I know that will be a welcome, a welcome measure for those who are impacted by it.
Happy to take some questions. Let’s stay on Lifeline announcement first and then Wendy and John can, they can excuse themselves and happy to deal with other issues … Sounds like we’ve been very comprehensive, we’ve been very comprehensive. Thank you very much.
MR JOHN BROGDEN, LIFELINE AUSTRALIA PATRON: I just want to say one more thing …
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, sure John.
MR JOHN BROGDEN, LIFELINE AUSTRALIA PATRON: And that is that that the money you gave us is every cent we asked for. So it’s the full Budget submission, which is very generous. We should have asked for more.
PRIME MINISTER: I have no doubt you will on other occasions and we look forward to those Budgets. The answer is usually yes, I’ve got to say, but nine, $9 million to $30 million a year. That’s that’s the measure of this Government’s support of Lifeline, and I hope the volunteers in particular understand how much they’re valued in support of the work they do.
Happy to take other questions.
JOURNALIST: So, Prime Minister, why did it take Andrew Gee threatening to resign for you to fund Veterans’ Affairs the backlog in compensation claims?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, I wouldn’t agree with that assessment. I mean, what the Budget has funded is the initial work, some of the program that he’s outlined, and there’ll be further investment that is made after the Budget, which will come from the contingency reserve. We’ve already invested in, we will invest around $11.5 Billion a year to support our veterans. In the 21-20, 21-22 Budget, we provided an additional $702 million with the focus on wellbeing, suicide prevention and ensuring DVA was appropriately equipped. Now this included measures for departmental operations and processing times, support physical and mental wellbeing of veterans, provisional access to medical treatment programs, we had $30 million to enable DVA to support requests from the Royal Commission. It was $32 million to enable continued recognition of the service and sacrifice of those who serve. There was also reform of veterans support services. Some $500 million has been invested in Veteran centric reform. And on processing times, as a result, as part of our efforts to engage with the community, there has been a doubling of compensation claims received between 2017-18 and 2019-20, the last which we have those figures. And we welcome and encourage veterans to seek that support, just as we welcome and encourage people to seek support from services like this. And in the 21-22 Budget, the funding to improve DVA operations and processing of claims, that meant DVA received 440 additional staff – 440 additional staff to bolster capability in the year ahead to improve their operations and the processing of claims.
Now Minister Gee has only recently come into this portfolio through this Budget process, and I appreciate and acknowledge and commend him for his enthusiasm for the task. He’s understanding, as this Government always has, the very pressing needs on veterans, and the program of works that we are, we are supporting, both in this Budget and subsequent announcements to the Budget, will ensure that DVA can go and deliver. Because, you know, it’s one thing to make an investment, but you’ve got to have the confidence that the investments that you’re making can then be implemented effectively. And that’s the work that the Minister will need to be doing to ensure that the investments we’re making can be backed up by the delivery of those investments, and I look forward to him acquitting himself to those tasks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Solomon Islands has confirmed that it is pursuing this security arrangement with China. What are you hearing from Australia’s allies about it? Are they concerned? And what can Australia do to stop this? Kevin Rudd, for example, suggested sending Marise Payne there straight away to try and stop this from going ahead.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me make a couple of points. I think there is great concern across the Pacific family because we are in constant contact with our Pacific family and they’ll be in further discussions with leaders over the course of this weekend. There was a meeting yesterday with our Head of Mission and Prime Minister Sogavare yesterday to talk through these issues, and they’re very aware of our views on this. But I think what these events highlight is the reason why our Government increased our overseas development assistance to the Pacific by 50 per cent. I know that the former Prime Minister was putting some figures around the other day – just straight wrong. They’re just not true. We actually increased our investment in overseas development assistance in the Pacific by 50 per cent. It was a step up because we had to step up from where Labor was investing in this area. While they were chasing votes for the Security Council, throwing money in continents far away from our region, we decided to increase our focus and draw together, and this started under Foreign Minister Bishop, drawing together our overseas development assistance from around the world and focusing it on the Pacific region because we saw that as our first responsibility.
And in addition to that, it has been the increase and the equipping of our Defence Forces, which plays such an important role within the Pacific family of nations. And we lifted defence investment from 1.57 per cent, which is what Kevin Rudd left us, and if we’d stayed at Labor and Kevin Rudd’s levels, we would have spent $55 billion less on defence since we came to Government and $10 billion less in this year alone. So our Government is the Government that stepped up in the Pacific, and we’ve stepped up in the face of increasing threats and increasing pressures. And we’ve been responding to those, and we will respond as a family of Pacific nations, of which Australia is one, New Zealand is another, and we’ll be progressing those issues, and we respect the sovereignty of our individual island states in our region. They make their own decisions in their own places and we respect their democracies. And at the same time, though, we will work with our partner states in the Pacific to ensure there is a keen understanding of the risks and threats that we believe this poses, and we’ve made those positions very clear.
JOURNALIST: Do you think you can convince them to change their mind?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, ultimately, these are the decisions of sovereign governments, and the communication we had yesterday from Prime Minister Sogavare was that he greatly appreciates the incredible support. We are the Solomon Islands’ single largest development partner – daylight second, third, fourth. It was when the Solomon Islands recently went into a time of crisis, the first place the Solomon Islands called was Australia, and we sent in our Defence Forces and our police, and they’re still there, and we have committed to them being there till the end of 2023. So we will be there on the ground and continue to be there on the ground to support peace and security and stability in the Solomon Islands.
And not just there – it was Australia who turned up in Tonga. It was Australia that turned up in Samoa when they had their measles crisis. It was Australia that turned up in Fiji and vaccinated the Fijian nation, for which Frank Bainimarama was so grateful. It was Australia that turned up in Papua New Guinea for the electrification project and the support for their police force training and recruitment in the centres we’ve established in Port Moresby. It is Australia that the Pacific have turned to, and no government has committed more time, effort, investment and respect to the Pacific nations than my Government has. It goes back and deep with me over a long period of time, before I even entered politics. I see the Pacific as our family and they are our priority when it comes to our overseas development assistance. And that is reflected in the increasing by 50 per cent in what we’ve invested in these important programs over what Labor left us.
JOURNALIST: Is there any reason you didn’t meet with China’s Ambassador?
PRIME MINISTER: I mean, for the same reason that President Xi does not meet with our Ambassador in China. Ambassadors don’t regularly meet with heads of government, and that is the case in Australia as well. On occasions we do. But when we have a situation where China has completely blocked any ministerial, minister to minister dialogue between Australia and China, then until those arrangements are removed and that block is removed by China, well, I think Australians would think it would be very inappropriate for me to engage in that dialogue with an ambassador. The Foreign Minister met with the Ambassador, as she does with many ambassadors. But when it comes to a head of government, so long as China continues to refuse to have dialogue with Australian ministers and indeed the Prime Minister, then I think that’s an entirely proportional response.
JOURNALIST: But isn’t the opposite, actually? Wouldn’t you actually meet, if there’s a blockage with the ministerial dialogue, wouldn’t the Prime Minister actually intervene and talk to the Ambassador?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: Isn’t it in fact the opposite?
PRIME MINISTER: No, it’s not the opposite, because that would be a demonstration of weakness on our part. I can assure you, as Prime Minister, that’s the last message I’ve ever sent to China.
JOURNALIST: How do you respond to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s comments that the Australian Government is, comments about the Solomon Islands agreement is irresponsible, unhelpful and creating tensions?
PRIME MINISTER: I disagree with them completely, and I disagree with them on the basis that we’ve always been in the Pacific, we’ve always been there to support. Pacific nations know that we are part of their Pacific family and that we’ve always prioritised their needs and their interests and respected their sovereignty and haven’t sought to influence them or interfere with them in any way. We’ve been there to support them, and that’s what Pacific peoples understand about Australia. And so we’re in a position to speak about our family members in the Pacific. Others, I, others’ commentary I don’t think is borne by that same experience.
JOURNALIST: Do you believe it’s a bad agreement for the region?
PRIME MINISTER: I do.
JOURNALIST: Can I come back to Minister, the Veterans’ Affairs Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: So were you told by the Deputy Prime Minister that he had been told that Mr Gee would resign if he didn’t get the full Budget allocation for Veterans’ Affairs [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: This was a Budget submission that had come through. I’m not going to go into the details of the Budget process. Submissions are made in the course of the Budget. The Budget was locked. It is locked. There was always the decision for further funding to be provided under this proposal, which it indeed will, and that was the indication that was provided during the Budget process. Minister Gee is newly in Cabinet and is coming to understand those processes and I appreciate that he, that he does. And we look forward to getting on with those programs. Thanks very much, everyone.
