PM heckled, accused of ‘condemning young people’
A climate activist has gatecrashed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s election announcement on youth mental health, accusing him of failing young Australians.
Albanese was unveiling a $1 billion package, which includes a boost in the number of Medicare mental health centres and additional services for young people, on Tuesday when a protester burst into his press conference.
“You say you care about young people and yet since getting elected, your government has approved new coal and gas mines,” the woman yelled.
“You’re condemning young people like me to a life of climate disaster.”
It was the second time Albanese has been heckled on climate and the third time an outsider has gatecrashed his campaign events. Activists from climate protest group Rising Tide have also interrupted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on the election trail.
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Tuesday’s heckler in Albanese’s own inner-Sydney seat of Grayndler was quickly pushed outside by the prime-ministerial security detail. But her message echoed youth mental health concerns raised earlier.
Developments in recent decades – like rising student debt, the surging cost of housing and climate change – had made the lives and futures of young people “much more challenging and pessimistic”, University of Melbourne psychiatrist Pat McGorry said as he welcomed Labor’s promise.
“Young people are the miners’ canaries of society, they’re showing up with symptoms of a society that’s heading in the wrong direction,” he said.
“We need to identify what those problems are and then turn the direction around.”
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Labor’s package allocates $225 million for new or upgraded Medicare mental health centres – “entry point” facilities that allow patients to access free consultations with professionals but are not designed to offer longer-term ongoing care.
It also offers an extra $200 million for 58 services run by mental-health organisation Headspace, either to set up new locations or expand existing ones.
The announcement also includes $500 million to set up 20 youth specialist care centres, designed to deal with young people who have mental health conditions such as eating disorders or personality disorders.
“I want every Australian, particularly every young person, to be able to access the mental health care that they need,” Albanese said.
A further $90 million would be spent on helping to train 1200 mental health professionals.
The Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists urged the coalition to match Labor’s workforce investment.
Dutton said Labor was playing catch-up on Coalition policies.
The opposition has pledged to double the number of Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions should it form government at the May 3 poll.
Patients were offered 20 subsidised sessions during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic as a temporary measure under the former Coalition government. Dutton has called for the sessions to be restored.
“[Clinicians] need more services to deal with complex matters, and that provides them with more income, more revenue and more incentive to practice in this area,” he told ABC news.
