Victorians to pay mental health tax flagged by royal commission

Victorians should pay a new mental health tax to fund the multi-billion dollar shortfall in services across the state.

Royal Commission chairwoman Penny Armytage.

Victorians will pay a new mental health tax to fund the multi-billion-dollar shortfall in mental health services across the state, possibly as early as next year.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday accepted the Victorian mental health royal commission’s recommendation for public funds to be raised specifically for mental health treatments, saying he and his team would spend the summer developing the tax.

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The Premier said the new tax would need to raise hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of dollars each year to fund appropriate services.

“This is an investment in changing lives, saving lives and taking mental illness seriously,” Mr Andrews said.

“The community will not accept … 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 provided to the government on Thursday warned that the state’s mental health system had “categorically failed” the state, and Victoria was spending less per capita on mental health services than any other state.

It made nine recommendations, which Mr Andrews committed to introducing, including significant boost to hospital beds for youth and acute mental health patients, greater clinical supports for people who have tried to suicide and beefing up mental health services for Aboriginal Victorians.

The commission said they said the new tax could operate in a similar fashion to the charge made to ratepayers or car owners that funds the state’s fire services.

The commissioners were highly critical of Victoria’s current mental health system.

“Once admired as the most progressive in our nation, the state’s mental health system has catastrophically failed to live up to expectations,” the four commissioners, led by chair Penny Armytage, wrote in the report’s foreword.

“Past ambitions have not been realised or upheld, and the system is woefully unprepared for current and future mental health challenges.

“For too long mental health has been relegated to the shadows within the broader health system. Historical under investment and increasing demand mean that services can no longer respond adequately to people living with mental illness, their families and carers.”

Currently the Victorian government commits $1.28bn a year to mental health services, but the report notes that about half of the 205,000 Victorians who experience a significant mental health event each year are receiving inadequate care. The commissioners said they would wait until their final report in October next year before recommending a total level of funding required to reform the system.

Ms Armytage said the system needed a shake-up.

“There is no question that the status quo must change. 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,” she said.

“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.”

The commission called for the development of a Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing as part of its initial recommendations, along with the creation of an Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing Centre and expanding social and emotional wellbeing teams statewide to better support Aboriginal Victorians.

The commission has received more than 8200 contributions so far, including through consultations, round tables, public hearings, surveys with more than 3200 submissions from individuals and organisations.