Thanks very much Jeff. Thanks very much Kate Carnell. It is an honour to be here. I acknowledge the presence of very many parliamentary colleagues led by the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, the Shadow Minister.
I should particularly acknowledge Dr Andrew Southcott who has had a long interest in this area. Dr David Gillespie who has also dealt with this issue as a medical practitioner, as well as more recently as a Member of Parliament.
Yes Jeff, in 2005 as health minister I helped to launch the Rotary Winnebago. We’ve moved up to a bus because the issue has just got bigger as the years have gone by.
At some point in our lives one in five of us will suffer a significant mental health issue. At any one time some 1 million Australians are suffering from depression and in any one year tragically some 2000 Australians will take their lives.
This is a very serious issue and as Jeff said as much as we do, it’s never enough. We are doing more than ever before. I was pleased as health minister to preside over the $2 billion better outcomes in mental health programme initiative taken by the Howard government. I have to say that was largely in response to a lot pressure in our party room, led at the time by Warren Entsch who’s continued to have a very significant interest in this area.
So this really is a community campaign, it is a community campaign to reach out to our fellow Australian in need, to reach out to our fellow human being in trouble and to try to do what we can – as friends, as family, as citizens, as professionals – to do everything we reasonably can to help people through the dark moments in their life.
Dark moments will come – for some, very dark indeed. We need to be aware of them; we need to reach out to them.
Mental health has been the hidden epidemic for so long, but thanks to people like Jeff and Kate and everyone associated with beyondblue, and I notice a couple of board members over there – Professor Michael Kidd and Paul Howes. Thanks to the efforts of beyondblue we are doing better, but we are never going to do enough and the challenge always is to do more and to do better.
So, thank you so much Jeff and it’s my honour – my challenge – to declare this blue bus officially launched.
[ends]