Tuesday, 18 February 2025

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (17:50): (1409) My adjournment is for the Minister for Mental Health, and the action I am seeking is for the minister to resolve stalled enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations between the Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association and the public mental health workforce. It is no secret that the mental health system in Victoria is under severe strain and more people than ever are experiencing poor mental health. More people than ever are presenting to our mental health services. Projections indicate that this demand is only going to grow, with mental health disorders soon to become the leading contributor to Australia’s burden of disease. We know that good mental health is reliant on a whole raft of social determinants, such as stable housing, a strong sense of belonging and identity, access to education and the ability to access timely and affordable health care. But when people really need help, from periods of acute crisis to therapy and recovery, it is our mental health workforce who step in as the backbone of the system. The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System emphasised that the state’s workforce is under-resourced and staff feel overworked and burnt out. Consequently it made several recommendations to support workforce attraction and retention, including measures for improved conditions. Then in 2022, as part of the negotiated enterprise agreement at the time, the mental health minister at the time announced that an additional 800 jobs over four years would be delivered to boost the mental health workforce, highlighting that the initiative would support staff retention in line with the recommendations of the royal commission.

Four years on, the promised 800 staff are nowhere to be seen. By not creating additional jobs there is further strain on an already overstretched workforce. Not only are they under huge pressure, the mental health workforce are not offered parity of pay, conditions and allowances with the general medical and allied health workforce. We have workers with the same qualifications as others, often working in the same hospitals, but who work in mental health and are therefore paid differently. This begs the question: why is mental health work differently valued to the rest of health care? The strain that this cohort is under is debilitating. Those who work in the mental health system are unwaveringly committed to the work that they do – something that I know the minister understands – but passion can only get you so far. The consequence of undervaluing this workforce is that they become even harder to recruit and retain, and ultimately the care that can be provided by the system falls short of what is needed by the broader Victorian public. It is time that the government acknowledge the critical nature of these frontline mental health staff and ensure a fair agreement is reached quickly.