Cabinet Minister Geoff Brock reveals how he contemplated suicide in wake of cliffhanger election

Cabinet Minister Geoff Brock has revealed he contemplated suicide after he was left to decide who would lead the state at the cliffhanger 2014 election.

Cabinet Minister Geoff Brock, with a picture of his younger brother Ian who died by suicide 11 years ago, has revealed how he contemplated taking his own life after his decision to support Labor at the 2014 state election. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Cabinet Minister Geoff Brock has revealed he considered taking his own life in the years following his high-stakes decision to back Labor into power following the cliffhanger 2014 election.

The independent country MP has spoken about the toll that period took on his mental health – and about the loss of his brother to suicide 11 years ago – as part of The Advertiser’s Can We Talk campaign.

“The stress of having to make the decision of who would form government … the pressure was immense at that time,” Mr Brock recalled.

“I contemplated suicide on three occasions. It all comes down on top of you … until you can’t see anything else, you can’t think straight. But then I thought about what my children went through when their mum was killed (in a car accident 30 years ago) and I thought ‘No, I don’t want to do this’.”

Mr Brock is speaking about his lived experience with suicide as part of The Advertiser’s Can We Talk mental health campaign and in a bid to encourage others to talk. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Eight days after voters went to the polls on March 15, 2014, Mr Brock announced he would back then-Premier Jay Weatherill to retain power.

He was thrust into the spotlight after fellow independent MP, the late Bob Such – who shared the balance of power with Mr Brock following the poll – revealed he would take sick leave after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

At the time, Mr Brock spoke about the pressure he was under and the abuse he received but it was not until recently that he began to share the full extent of his mental health struggle.

“If I talk about it then I can help somebody else talk about their issues and release the pressure valve,” said the now 73-year-old who represents the vast electorate of Stuart, stretching from his home town of Port Pirie to the state’s Far North.

“When people ask ‘Are you OK?’, people who’ve got these issues … don’t say anything, they just say ‘Yes I’m all right’ and they try and cover it up.”

Mr Brock has sought professional help and says medication has helped him to manage his mental health.

Then-premier Jay Weatherill and Independent MP Geoff Brock in 2014 after Mr Brock announced he will support the Labor Party. Picture: Calum Robertson

Mr Brock was re-elected in March, 2022, and appointed by new Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas as minister for Local Government, Regional Roads and Veterans Affairs.

One of seven siblings, and a grandfather of 14, Mr Brock knows the pain that suicide can cause a family after losing his younger brother Ian 11 years ago.

“He was a very intelligent person, very wise with computers. He had programmed his computer to send out (a suicide note) at 8 o’clock in the morning and he … (took his life) at the same time,” Mr Brock explained.

“I couldn’t read that note for a long time. I’d get halfway through and start crying. He was crying when he was typing it into his computer. He (wrote) ‘the tears are coming down while I’m writing this letter’.

“I can’t understand what went through his mind. How did he feel? Why didn’t I know about it?”

Mr Brock said his brother, a father of two in his 50s, was living in Melbourne at the time.

“We didn’t see it. He didn’t talk about it. The black cloud must have kept coming over him to the point where he couldn’t control it anymore,” he said.

Mr Brock, a former smelter worker and mayor of Port Pirie for six years, said he was worried about young South Australians who may be keeping quiet about their struggles.

“I was speaking to some high school students in a bakery in Pirie. I said ‘How are you going guys?’ and they said ‘Stressed out of our minds’,” he recalled.

“It was about (school) exams. They must have had some issues at home too. But they weren’t talking about it with anyone.”

Mr Brock said he had also cried with parents in his office as they told how they had “lost their children to suicide in the defence force, or coming out of the defence force”.

He conceded that the national Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was “taking a long time, but they’ve got a lot to go through”.

The commission is expected to hold hearings in SA early next year.

Mr Brock noted there were not enough trained mental health professionals to meet demand, especially in regional SA, but argued both federal and state governments were working to increase access to services.

“No government is going to change it overnight,” he said.

“I would encourage people, if they’ve got any issues, please talk to somebody.”