‘Serious step backwards’: Furious response from mental health sector to cost-cutting bill

Gutting the mental health regulator would weaken the system and break promises made after the royal commission, the sector has warned, as upper house MPs prepare to block the cost-cutting measures.

More than a dozen organisations are lobbying to stop changes to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission and the Victorian Collaborative Centre, announced as part of Helen Silver’s review to find $4 billion in savings.

“These changes represent a serious step backwards from the vision and commitments established through the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System,” the organisations said in a joint open letter provided to The Age.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission itself took the rare step of directly advocating against the changes last month, declaring the bill appeared to be “at odds with the recommendations of the royal commission”.

The Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, Tandem, the Self Help Addiction Resource Centre, the Health and Community Services Union, Mind Australia, the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, Each, and Youth Support + Advocacy Service are among the signatories.

The first tranche of reform from Silver’s report is before parliament under the Entities Bill.

The bill would cut the number of commissioners from four to one, and would abolish the requirement for its leadership to include people who have been affected by mental ill health.

The joint letter said this “diluted representation and weakens accountability”. “These roles were not symbolic. They were structural safeguards designed to ensure reform did not drift back to decisions being made about people, rather than with them.”

Its ability to oversee the system would also be limited to responding to complaints rather than allowing for proactive investigations into systemic issues, and the commission would be limited in the data it could obtain.

“This should alarm anyone who cares about transparency, accountability and public trust,” the joint letter said.

The minister will set the commission’s objectives each year if the bill passes as drafted, which the organisations said risked “constraining” its independence.

“Oversight that can be directed, narrowed or muted is not genuine oversight. The Mental Health Wellbeing Commission should not be diminished, rather its powers and the information accessible to the commissioners should be broadened.”

The government disputes the bill would weaken the commission’s oversight powers.

The bill also removes one of two chief executives from the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing, and any requirement they have lived experience with mental ill health.

“The message this sends is clear and damaging: that lived experience leadership is optional, expendable, and negotiable when budgets tighten,” the letter said.

The organisations are calling on the government and upper house MPs to stop the bill’s passage through parliament to retain lived experience requirements for leadership positions, to report on mental health funding more transparently, and to expand the commission’s powers.

The Coalition, Greens and Animal Justice parties are expected to vote together to amend the bill where it relates to the commission, while Legalise Cannabis shares the concerns but is waiting to see the proposed amendments.

Opposition mental health spokeswoman Emma Kealy, speaking to the bill in parliament last week, said the change would walk back key recommendations of the royal commission handed down five years ago.

Greens health spokeswoman Dr Sarah Mansfield lashed the government proposal.

“It is an astonishing betrayal of everyone who shared their story with the royal commission for Labor to walk away from its promises just years later,” Mansfield said in a statement to The Age.

“We must remember why we had the royal commission in the first place. Mental health care is still as urgent as ever, and we need a system properly resourced to fix it, not hollowing it out for short-term savings.”

A Victorian government spokeswoman said the state was leading the nation in mental health reform.

“We’re not wasting a minute building a system that works for every Victorian, no matter where they live,” she said.

“The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission is responsible for system oversight, that will not change.

“The proposed changes will help to strengthen its role so it can focus on the areas where it can have the greatest impact: safeguarding rights, resolving complaints, and helping improve the mental health system.”

The abolition of VicHealth, which was also recommended by Silver, is also separately expected to be blocked in the upper house.

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