Wednesday, 18 March 2026

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:36): (1275) My questions are to the Minister for Mental Health and relate to the recommendations of the royal commission into mental health services. Following the alleged murder of a mental health patient by another patient at the Swanston Centre in Geelong, serious concerns have been raised about the building’s design, which creates serious risks due to the layout and lack of safe spaces. Meanwhile, violence against mental health workers continues to escalate, and little attention is being paid to patient-on-patient violence and the impact on patients’ families and staff. The royal commission made clear recommendations to improve safety, infrastructure and working conditions in our mental health services. Minister, what is the government doing to ensure the safety of both mental health workers and patients in Victoria’s mental health facilities, in line with those recommendations?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence) (12:37): Thank you very much for your question, Mr Ettershank. These are really important issues that I take incredibly seriously as the responsible minister. I will come to the issues around workforce and consumer safety in a moment, but I obviously want to begin by offering my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of that individual in the incident that you have raised. I am not going to add anything beyond that. That is a matter that is under investigation currently. It is obviously incredibly distressing for everyone involved, but it is not my intention to compromise any of those investigations by making any comment on the specifics of the Barwon Swanston Centre incident.

On the broader questions around occupational violence and consumer safety, these were matters that, as you are aware, the royal commission went into in some detail, and there has been a comprehensive program that has been run through both my department and Safer Care Victoria around making sure that our acute and subacute mental health wards are as safe as they need to be to ensure that there are not adverse outcomes for either consumers or staff. There has been significant work done in upgrading existing facilities, including gender segregation in a number of our acute facilities, and there have also been many upgrades to infrastructure.

I can point to a number of projects where the improved and new infrastructure builds are having a significant impact in a good way on the levels of occupational violence, which are coming right down. I would give the example of the Sunshine Hospital mental health facility, the new 52-bed facility, where staff are reporting that, because it is a more therapeutic physical environment, the incidence of occupational violence is coming right down. The mental health and AOD hubs in our emergency departments are another example of where changing the way in which those consumers are triaged through the system is having a really good impact on levels of occupational violence and consumer safety. Of course there is more to do, and both I and Minister Thomas have been having ongoing conversations with both the workforce and unions about the importance of continuing to focus on bringing down levels of occupational violence right across the health system, and I am committed to continuing that work with Minister Thomas.

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:40): Thank you, Minister, for that response. Another key recommendation of the royal commission was to address the chronic lack of appropriate supported accommodation for people living with mental illness. While the minister’s response yesterday to the question from Dr Mansfield indicates that there is some progress, the lack of beds, combined with the lack of appropriate supported accommodation, is seeing patients being discharged from hospitals into homelessness. We are aware of recent referrals that specifically discharged a patient to a friend’s couch, to a shopping centre, to a hotel for three days, to the front door of the local Salvation Army service and, I think perhaps most shockingly, to a ‘safe local park’. Minister, how is this consistent with the government’s commitment to fulfilling recommendation 25 of the royal commission, and what interim measures are being undertaken to address this issue?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence) (12:41): I thank Mr Ettershank for that supplementary question. I am not sure how it relates to the substantive, but I am happy to give my best effort in the 50 seconds that I have got available for what is a pretty comprehensive question. In addition to the answer I gave Dr Mansfield yesterday about the progress towards the royal commission’s recommendation around the supported housing allocation for those suffering mental health challenges, I would also point to the work of a number of my colleagues and the government’s effort across the board to increase the number of social housing and community housing opportunities across the state. We have, through the Big Build and through the work of Minister Shing, seen a massive increase in the number of homes available. Of course we know that there is much more work to be done, and that will continue to be a focus of not just me but many other ministers in the government.