Mr CALDWELL (Fadden—Opposition Whip) (09:09): First, I thank the assistant minister for her kind words on this topic, and I recognise her genuine personal engagement in this area. I rise to recognise that October is Mental Health Month. It's a reminder of the importance of looking after our mental health and wellbeing. Mental health matters deeply to Australians, and it matters deeply to the coalition. According to the 2020-22 National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 22 per cent of Australians, or 4.3 million people, experienced a mental illness in the year prior to completing the survey. That's one in five Australians who need help, understanding and support. Behind every statistic is a family member, friend or colleague. It is the duty of any government to break stigma, raise awareness and ensure that support is there for Australians who need it. That is why the coalition is proud of our legacy in government. We established headspace in 2006 as a trusted and recognised support service and the National Suicide Prevention Research Fund in 2016. It was the coalition who doubled the number, from 10 to 20, of Medicare subsidised mental health sessions Australians could access. In opposition, we will always be constructive where we can but critical where we must. While this government talks about the importance of mental health, too many Australians are still falling through the cracks. The government talks about mental health awareness, but they've cut the Medicare subsidised support in half, ripping away care from hundreds of thousands of Australians with more chronic or complex mental health conditions. They promised cost-of-living relief, but they have made it more expensive to see a mental health professional. They say that they care about outcomes, yet they ignore their own experts and reject the data. They have abolished the National Mental Health Commission and cut the National Suicide Prevention Research Fund, a fund that was driving life-saving research under the coalition. Disappointingly, despite these cuts, they did not announce a single new measure to address more complex or chronic mental health needs in their entire first term in office. Millions of dollars have also been spent changing signs, logos and websites for services at rebadged Medicare mental health centres that already existed under the coalition under the Head to Health program. Instead of investing in real services and new frontline support, Labor has spent taxpayer money rebadging and ribbon cutting coalition funded centres and pretending they're new. Meanwhile, Australia is facing a mental health crisis, with demand for mental health support continuing to rise. Despite rising demand, data from the Productivity Commission tells us that the number of new patients accessing Medicare mental health support has fallen to the lowest level in at least a decade. And, as costs rise, more Australians are delaying care altogether. Nearly one in five people now say they've put off seeing a mental health professional because they can't afford it. That is a tragedy, and it is avoidable. As I said, we will be critical where we must, and we must be critical about a failure to treat mental health as a genuine national priority. Awareness is critical, but words alone are not enough. Australians need timely and affordable access to care. They need research, and they need early intervention. The coalition will continue to hold this government to account for its failures, and we will continue to fight for a system that ensures Australians can access the mental health support they need when they need it. Mental health should be a national priority, and it's time that this government genuinely started treating it that way.