RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS - Queensland Parliament ...

498 Queensland Mental Health Commission Bill 7 Mar 2013
of-government approach to mental health. What an astonishing idea and, in my opinion, a far-sighted
idea. I also congratulate the minister with regard to the advisory council being established under
clause 38 and the capacity of that panel to advise the commission in relation to its functions. Clause
39 shows that the membership of the panel or council is wide ranging and takes into account many
diverse ideas, cultural backgrounds and also experiences. In particular, this looks at people who are
the family members, the service users and support persons of those men and women in this state
who do need mental health assistance. Again, this is a far-ranging and, in my opinion, long overdue
approach to mental health.
Many members have spoken during their contributions about personal issues they have faced.
Each year I attend the suicide bereavement group annual celebration, if I can use that word, at Cotton
Tree where we hear from men and women who have lost their loved ones—lost young children, their
husbands, their wives or their parents—and some of the stories there are heartbreaking. I have made
it abundantly clear at those meetings that the issue of suicide is one that is in plague proportions
across this nation in my opinion and I have also made it quite clear that in my opinion we need to
have a public debate in relation to the why of suicide, under the guidance of experts of course who
can take from that debate the emotive issues associated therewith and get down to the root causes.
I also join with the member for Dalrymple—and I never thought that I would hear myself making
this statement—in that I agree with him with regard to Men’s Sheds. There are two in Caloundra and
a number across the Sunshine Coast. They are wonderful ideas for men who are lonely, men who are
elderly, men who are separated and men who are isolated to come together to have a cup of tea, to
have a bit of a talk with their mates to talk through their problems and to understand the society in
which they live. People come to the Sunshine Coast under the impression that they can walk into the
coast, obtain a job, join a community based organisation and get the immediate friendship that they
need. It does not happen. As you get older, men traditionally find it much harder to mix in society.
These Men’s Sheds actually go a long way to giving men the opportunity to reconnect with men of
their own age and indeed with society as a whole.
It has always struck me as odd that women tend to be able to come together in simple
formation such as a coffee club or having a cup of coffee down at the local coffee shop and talking
through their issues, talking through their concerns. Men do not do that. Men in fact lock themselves
away in their own psyche alone from society, and that starts to spiral down into mental health issues.
We can learn a lot from women. They talk about any topic. I talk to my wife on a regular basis—when
she is home—and she will often tell me—
A government member interjected.
Mr McARDLE: I take the interjection from the Leader of the House that you cannot blame her
for being out. She talks to me about what she and her girlfriends talk about, and they talk about every
topic under the sun. They get their issues off their chest and they get their concerns dealt with by
talking to their female companions. Men do not tend to do that, and looking around at my colleagues
in this House I wonder why. We do not tend to do that, and that is to the detriment of men as a whole.
We need to look at and consider how women do this so successfully, and I think Men’s Sheds are a
step in the right direction. Mental health should not be an issue that is kept under the carpet. Mental
health should be an issue that we should be debating and talking about with our families, our children,
our aunts, our uncles, our communities. When we move from the stigma of mental health, we will
have the bright light of reality shone upon it and perhaps outcomes can be achieved that for so long
have been required. I commend the bill to the House.
Hon. LJ SPRINGBORG (Southern Downs—LNP) (Minister for Health) (12.47 pm), in reply: I
thank all honourable members who have participated in this debate from all sides of the chamber,
particularly those who have shared so many personal and very passionate and very close
experiences, because this can be a very difficult topic. Today I am going to start by responding in
reverse order, and I also want to very much commend my friend and former shadow minister for
health, Mark McArdle, the member for Caloundra. As I said, he was the opposition’s health
spokesman prior to the last state election. He did so much wonderful work in preparing the
groundwork for the reforms and the innovations which we are now bringing through this place and
that we are making systematically as we reform the health system in Queensland. I also want to very
much commend the honourable member for Caloundra for his very strong and personal commitment