Can I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay respects to elders past, present and emerging. Can I say to the wonderful Nieves Murray and the team at Suicide Prevention Australia, thank you for the extraordinary work you do. And it says something wonderful about the organisation and about Nieves herself, that she’s brought not only herself up here, but her whole team to share in the thanks of us all for a wonderful conference and for the wonderful work that they do.
To all the delegates here, clinicians, researchers, community workers, advocates and especially those with lived experience, I want to say thank you.
What you do matters deeply.
And it is not easy. I know that.
Many of you carry this work home with you. Many of you have your own experience of loss.
I want to begin by acknowledging that.
THIS IS PERSONAL
Suicide prevention is very personal for me.
My father died by suicide at age 55, when I was 20 years old. It was a traumatic time that had an enormous impact on my life. I spoke about it 10 years ago in my maiden speech to Parliament, and was actually along with my friend, the former Labor MP, Mike Kelly, the co-founder of the Parliamentary Friends of Suicide Prevention.
Today, the memory of the impact of my Dad’s death drives me to do my utmost to ensure that other families do not experience what we experienced.
Personal experience does not just make you an advocate.
It makes you impatient for solutions that work.
And as Nieves has said, I might stir the possum a little bit in some of my remarks today, but I think from what everybody has been saying to me, this is a time where, at this conference, people have been asking, what are we doing, is it working, let’s ask some fundamental questions and have a re-look at what we’re doing.
There have always been two things that I think would make a real impact in suicide prevention, and I don’t think we have ever properly delivered them.
It’s not a partisan comment, but it’s a realistic one.
Workplace-based suicide first aid
The first thing that I’ve always wanted to see, and it relates to my own experience, is a workplace-based suicide awareness program that is rolled out in every major workplace in the country.
In my view, and the reason I spoke about my father’s death by suicide in the Parliament in my maiden speech, is because the more people that recognise and know the signs and know how to take action, the more chance we have to save more lives.
That is certainly the case in my father’s example.
The week before he died, his behaviour changed dramatically
We, like many families, have always been a family that hugged each other, but the week dad died, he started giving us all these very long hugs. My father prided himself on being a great parker with his car, but the week before he died, he just did not seem to care how he parked. In hindsight, it was clear that something had changed. I knew it, but I did not say anything.
This is 30 years ago, and 30 years ago we talked very differently about suicide to how we do now.
In 2017, in my own electorate, I brought together 180 community leaders, everyone from the major employers in my electorate to community organisations, and I challenged them to roll out Lifeline’s Suicide First Aid course across their organisations.
While many of the community organisations took this up, overwhelmingly, the best take-up and the greatest impact was in the larger businesses in the electorate.
There are some really great suicide first aid courses available, and many of them are delivered by people in this room. I have done courses with Mates in Construction. I have done the Mates in Construction course, I’ve done the Lifeline course, and I’ve done the Wesley Life Force course.
There’s a range of different ways in which you can do it. But I think the best way to get the largest coverage is by having these courses delivered in the workplaces by peers.
I think if people can recognise the signs that someone might be contemplating suicide and know how to take action, that’s our best chance. So I want to see employers taking the lead, but ultimately, we might require government action to step up here.
Aftercare
The second initiative that I want to see progressed, is the delivery of universal aftercare. In my view, the failure to deliver universal aftercare frustrates me because it was so within our grasp and yet I don’t believe it’s been delivered properly.
We know that the people most likely to die by suicide are those who have already attempted suicide.
We’re talking about getting the numbers down. That’s the group I think we need to be focusing on.
We also know who they are and where they live because they have been admitted to mental health facilities.
A more concentrated intervention post-discharge with this group of people has the greatest chance to make the greatest difference to the number of people dying by suicide.
As we know, in the weeks after a suicide attempt, the risk of a further attempt is 20 to 40 times higher than in the general population. That is the window when intervention has the greatest possible impact.
On ANZAC Day in my community, a lady approached to talk to me about her son, Ben. Ben died by suicide in 2023. He was 38.
He repeatedly asked for help, but the system failed him at Triage, at the hospital, and it failed him and his family, including his pregnant wife, after discharge.
His mother says, and I quote
“When Ben was discharged prematurely, against the explicit recommendation of the presiding Magistrate, our family was given no guidance, no support and no follow-up. We did not know what to do. Families must be included in safety planning, properly briefed at discharge, and supported in the critical weeks that follow. Post-discharge follow-up must be real and mandatory. A phone call is not enough. Medication must be monitored. Deterioration must be actively tracked.”
In the 2021–22 Budget, the Morrison Government committed $158.6 million to universal aftercare, so that every person discharged from hospital after an attempt would receive follow-up support. The sector was ready. But unfortunately, universal aftercare has been a patchwork of implementation across the country. Some states have adopted it, and others have not, and there is no consistency in service provision across the country.
The Productivity Commission’s 2025 review of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement confirmed the system remains fragmented. Key commitments stalled and, in the Commission’s own words, the Agreement “cannot deliver the systemic, coordinated change it promises.”
As your own organisation, Suicide Prevention Australia, noted in their submission to the Productivity Commission’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement Review, and I quote
“The Productivity Commission should assess the extent to which the funding allocated to universal aftercare and postvention in the 2021-22 Federal Budget has been expended, and whether universal aftercare and postvention have been achieved, and give advice on whether further efforts towards this are required.”
Universal aftercare was funded. It was promised. It appears it has not been properly delivered, and the delay can be measured in lives.
We need a proper rollout of universal aftercare now, to every patient, with culturally appropriate versions for indigenous communities led by community-controlled organisations.
Because the reality is that the situation is worse now than it was when I started talking about these issues a decade ago. When I gave my maiden speech in 2016, the annual number of people taking their lives was 2,866. Today, it’s 3,307, roughly 8 people dying by suicide per day, to 9 people dying by suicide per day.
Our approach isn’t working, and we need to really question some of the fundamental assumptions we’re making in our approach to it.
THE CRISIS IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
I’ve also obviously got some particular concerns about the rate of suicide in Indigenous communities, and I know there’s been a real focus in some of the sessions on suicide prevention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The number of lives lost to suicide are even greater than the number for the general population. In 2024, 306 indigenous people died by suicide, the highest number ever recorded, an 8 per cent increase on 2023 and the third consecutive year of increase.
The rate of indigenous suicide is three times that of the non-indigenous population.
Suicide is the leading cause of death among Aboriginal children in this state, and this state has seen the Aboriginal suicide rate double in a decade.
The Closing the Gap target is to reduce the rates by 15 per cent by 2031, and the truth is, we are not closing the gap. Sadly, it is widening.
Earlier this week, I spoke with Carl Honeysett, the Project Coordinator at Kunjur, with the Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Corporation in North Queensland. And our discussion gave me real hope.
He reminded me, as so many of you know in this room, that suicide prevention doesn’t just require medical or clinical responses, but it requires responses that address the psychosocial dimension, and for Indigenous people, the spiritual and cultural dimension of suicide prevention.
He told me that an Indigenous man at a crisis point doesn’t feel comfortable going to a hospital or GP, and that those places can be places of trauma.
But going to an indigenous suicide prevention organisation starts the focus differently. It focuses on relationships and culture and opens the door to healing.
His organisation developed a cultural case management framework, which varies and differs quite heavily from the clinical approach.
Every Wednesday night, they hold a yarning circle for 30-35 men where they can share stories and experiences, eat and go on country. In this environment, the men say things they would never say elsewhere, and it helps lighten the load.
The data tells a good story. After eight years, around 500 men have participated in this approach, and none had died by suicide.
Now they’re looking to expand what they are doing across North Queensland.
We know that community-led, culturally grounded programs like Kunjur work.
Last year, the Lowitja Institute, working with the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention and the Black Dog Institute, released an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Systems Approach to Suicide Prevention Framework and Implementation Guidelines.
Alongside it, the Gayaa Dhuwi Proud Spirit Declaration, and I acknowledge the people from Gayaa Dhuwi who are here, the work of NACCHO, and the NPY Women’s Council’s Uti Kulintjaku program all point in the same direction.
The research is consistent. When indigenous people design and deliver their own responses, outcomes improve. Healing happens on Country, in community, and through culture.
CLOSING
In conclusion, nearly a decade ago, I stood in the House of Representatives and spoke about my father and about a morning I can never forget. And I called on our parliament, on all sides of our Parliament, to do better.
Australia has done better in many ways, but we haven’t done enough. We’ve acted too slowly.
To those of you who are here carrying grief today, who have lost someone or may be struggling yourselves, I want to say this very clearly. Your life matters. You are not alone in this room. To the indigenous community members who are here who have buried too many people, your knowledge, your leadership, and your love for your communities are the foundation of solutions that will last.
I believe life is sacred. I believe that when a person reaches the point of wanting to end their life, they are in crisis, and that in many cases, a crisis, met with genuine human connection and effective support, can be survived.
The research on attempt survivors is consistent. The vast majority, looking back, are grateful to be alive. Suicide is never victimless. It devastates families. It leaves children without parents. It ripples through communities for generations. I have lived that grief, and it has made me more determined, not less, that every possible effort must be made to reach people before they reach this point.
I know shortly you’re going to hear a panel of distinguished Australians, including people that I like very much as friends, who are going to talk to you about the idea of a human right to suicide. I want to go on record and say I’m opposed to such a right.
I think, you know, we are fundamentally focused on keeping people alive, on saving lives, on reminding people that lives matter. And I think when we talk about the right to suicide, we flip that. We flip fundamental things that are fundamental to our society on their head.
I believe that we can build a country where fewer families receive the call that my family received.
Where every person who attempts suicide is met in the days and weeks that follow with a human being who shows up. Where communities know the signs and have the courage to ask the question. Where culture, connection and belonging are treated as relevant infrastructure. That country is possible. The work to build that is urgent.
Thank you for all you do to make that happen.