Mental health services
Mr TAYLOR (Bayswater) (09:53): Mental health issues impact all of us. In our lifetimes mental illness will personally affect half the people we know, and this year alone mental health issues will affect over 1 million Victorians. This government at the end of 2019, when we released the interim report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, said that for too long we have not taken this issue seriously and enough is enough. We said that we are going to get serious about it and it is going to save lives. With the final report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System being handed down recently, this sets the path for the complete transformation of our system from the ground up so we can get it right, so we can fix our broken system, save lives and support Victorians when they need it most, because they deserve nothing less.
The report and our commitment are about putting community at the heart of the mental health system and providing the tailored services that Victorians need close to home when they need them, and only doing that will do justice to the more than 12 500 Victorians and organisations who contributed to the report. And we will implement every recommendation, every single one, because it is the right thing to do. Of course we know it will not be easy, but we will get on with this critical work and deliver the world-class mental health system that Victorians deserve.