Andrews Government to implement new tax next year for mental health system overhaul
Victorians will pay a new long-term tax starting next year as Premier Daniel Andrews promises to fund and implement the recommendations of the mental health royal commission.
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Victoria’s broken mental health system will be rebuilt with billions of dollars raised by a new tax to be in place from next year.
Premier Daniel Andrews and his team will spend the summer developing the tax after it was recommended by the mental health royal commission to reverse the state’s “historical underinvestment” in care.
With mental ill health costing the state $14.2 billion a year, Mr Andrews said planned reforms to the system would be “very, very expensive” but that “the cost of inaction is far, far greater”.
Speaking after the royal commission’s interim report was released this morning, the Premier said the new tax would be expected to raise hundreds of millions — if not billions — of dollars a year.
It will be designed as a permanent measure, although the government is yet to decide how it will be levied.
Options include a charge applied to ratepayers or car owners — who are currently billed to help fund the state’s fire services and the Transport Accident Commission.
“This is an investment in changing lives, saving lives and taking mental illness seriously,” Mr Andrews said.
“We will do everything we can to find a fair and balanced way of raising those funds. What I think the community will not accept … is that we just keep going on as we have been, failing families every minute of every day, people taking their own lives hours after being turned away from hospital.”
The commission’s interim report said a tax or levy was the best way to reverse the “historical underinvestment” that has seen Victoria spend less per capita on mental health services than any other state.
The Andrews Government had already committed to introduce every recommendation of the commission.
The commission says it will not recommend a total level of funding required to reform the system until it releases its final recommendations next year.
But the report reveals that of 205,000 Victorians who experience a severe mental illness every year, half of those are not receiving adequate care.
Fixing this shortfall alone would require the government to at least double its $1.28 billion annual mental health budget.
Another 302,000 Victorians will experience a moderate mental illness every year, almost 600,000 will have a mild mental illness and another 1.5 million may be at risk of mental health problems.
Other urgent recommendations, which the commission says the government must start implementing immediately, include:
• The creation of an extra 135 acute inpatient mental health beds, with most to be available by the end of 2021.
• A hospital outreach program to care for people who have attempted suicide.
• A new residential mental health service to provide an alternative to acute hospital care, offering short-term treatment and support.
• A major overhaul of development, education and training pathways for workers, including dozens of scholarships and graduate placements for medical professionals.
The immediate reform work should be overseen by a new mental health implementation office, the commission said.
Along with a new levy or tax, the commission also called for a dedicated capital investment fund to pay for the substantial works that will be needed to fix the system.
“There is no question that the status quo must change,” royal commission chair Penny Armytage said.
“One thing we have heard very clearly is that we are in the midst of a mental health crisis, that the system is failing and not meeting the needs of those who need it most. This must change.”
“The time has come to get the funding of mental health services right. This is essential to ensure we can deliver the reforms required to establish a contemporary and enduring mental health system.”
Ms Armytage said the new levy was needed to address longstanding underspending in mental health.
“It has not received the level of investment proportionate to the impact of this illness in our community and the burden of disease.
“We do not believe that the standard budget processes will prioritise mental health in the way that it needs to given the significant of this issue our Victorian community.”
The report said the commission did not have “a set view on the specific design and implementation of the mechanism” to fund the reforms.
“Government will need to consider the source of the revenue, how the introduction of the new revenue may be phased, the likely quantum to be raised, its variability over time and its impact across the community,” it said.
The report found Victoria’s mental health system was once the “most progressive in our nation” but has “catastrophically failed to live up to expectations”.
“Past ambitions have not been realised or upheld, and the system is woefully unprepared for current and future mental health challenges,” the report said.
“For too long mental health has been relegated to the shadows within the broader health system. Historical underinvestment and increasing demand mean that services can no longer respond adequately to people living with mental illness, their families and carers.”
“People do not receive the support they need when they need it. Many are left to exist on the margins; many feel unbearably alone and defeated when the right services are not available to them; and some take their own lives.”
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“There has been some progress, but stigma, discrimination and prejudice remain pervasive influences on the lives of people living with mental illness.”
“This Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System was established because there is now widespread acknowledgment that our mental health services have reached crisis point.”
The commission heard from more than 90 witnesses during four weeks of public hearings in July. It also held more than 60 consultations across Victoria in April and May, hearing from more than 1600 people.
More public hearings are expected next year and the commission’s final report will be delivered to the state government in October.
Anxiety and depression hung over Lisa Boyce like a heavy fog that haunted the period after her children were born.
It would take the mother of two years to realise her struggle was not a normal part of the parenting journey but instead a difficult battle with post-natal depression.
“I feel like I fell through the cracks,” Ms Boyce said.
“I didn’t understand what it was. I was sleep-deprived I had a new family and I was trying to keep them alive.
“You go to a place you never thought you would but people around you tell you this is just what motherhood is.”
Now Ms Boyce works to shed light on anxiety and depression as a Beyond Blue ambassador and founder of online community Bad Mums Club.
She said Wednesday’s findings by the Royal Commission in Victoria’s Mental Health System were a turning point towards removing stigma and funding a system that did not leave people behind.
“This is our legacy,” she said.
“We are shining a light directly on mental illness and we can’t turn away anymore.
“When we talk about money. I talk about the people who sit next to at the cafe who stand next to on the tram
“It’s not uncommon and it doesn’t discriminate.”
VICTORIA’S MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
205,000 Victorians have a severe mental illness, 302,000 have a moderate mental illness. 596,000 people have a mild mental illness.
1.5 million Victorians are at risk of developing a mental illness.
749 suicide deaths in Victoria in 2018/19.
$1.7 billion spent every year on mental healthcare by the state government.
Poor mental health costs the Victoria economy $14.2 billion a year.
People with mental health problems lose $4.8 billion in wages a year.
New levy to raise $500 million to $1 billion a year.
8000 people have contributed to the royal commission so far.