Mr NUGENT (12:18 PM) —It would be fair to say that there would be few of us in this parliament who have not been touched in one way or another by an incidence of youth suicide either through dealing with our constituents or maybe through our children's peer groups or perhaps directly through our families. I know that I, on being told on one occasion of a youth suicide, along with many others, have expressed dismay and have questioned what occurred in the life of that young person that so overwhelmed them that they were driven to the tragic step of ending their life.

Last year I attended the funeral of a young girl who prematurely ended her life. The palpable pain and disbelief of the parents as they searched for an answer to their daughter's death was really quite heart-rending. They, like many other families affected by youth suicide, need to know that compassionate and responsible measures are being taken to combat the rising incidence of youth suicide.

I would like to commend the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs for its report, Aspects of youth suicide. I would plead that the report will not be left to gather dust on the parliamentary shelves, and I do not believe it will, but it is important that its recommendations will be acted on in a constructive and coordinated way.

We need to remind ourselves of the facts and dimensions of the problem. In 1995, suicide was the recorded cause of death for 2,366 Australians. Of those deaths, 1,871 or 79 per cent involved males. Of these, 355, or 19 per cent, were young men aged under 25. That is almost one death a day for almost every day of the year. I believe that, at present, the highest risk age range for suicide of males appears to start at about school leaving age and continues into early middle age.

Suicide rates for females in 1995 were much lower than for males. There were 495 female suicide deaths recorded. Seventeen per cent of those—that is, 84—were under 25 years of age. ABS figures show that in 1995 suicide was the fourth leading cause of premature death in Australia following cancer, heart disease and accidents. Furthermore, whilst suicide represented six per cent of all causes of premature death in 1983, it has risen to 9.2 per cent in 1995. So it has gone up by 50 per cent in percentage terms. These are of course disturbing figures. Even more disturbing is the fact that they are not finite figures.

The rate of completed or attempted suicides in Australia is generally recognised as higher than reported due to a number of factors such as under reporting, not officially recording suicides in order to protect the victim's family or perhaps not recognising the suicide due to the nature of the death. It may be drug overdose related or single person car accidents. According to the report, hospital statistics show that for every death resulting from suicide there are 10 admissions to hospital for attempted suicide. Again, these figures do not represent the numbers of attempted suicides in reality because many are not admitted to hospital or do not seek help in any form.

It is also generally recognised that factors linked to youth suicide are numerous and complex. The committee concluded that young people who suicide fall into several main categories, the higher risk categories being: those who live in rural and remote areas, particularly males; those who are of Aboriginal descent, particularly young men again; those young people suffering a mental illness; those who have access to lethal means, such as young males in rural areas having access to firearms; those who have previously attempted suicide; and those who are confused about or ostracised because of perhaps their sexuality.

In the 1996-97 budget, the national youth suicide strategy provided $19 million over three years to be spent on a number of measures including rural and regional youth counselling services, telephone counselling services specifically for young people, programs for parents, education and training programs for professionals, and $1 million for research specifically into childhood mental health and factors which lead to adolescent suicide and attempted suicide. Whilst much is being done to help prevent the incidence of youth suicide, obviously more needs to be done.

The committee made a number of recommendations in the report, including the establishment of a National Advisory Council on Youth Suicide Prevention and with a research advisory committee complementing the work of the council. Development of a depression awareness campaign for young people, adoption of standard procedure for hospitals when treating young people who present with attempted suicide or self-harm injuries, a review of current funding and redirection of some funds to more appropriate and better targeted programs, and ensuring consistency in data collection at all levels of government were also priority recommendations of the report.

Given that the rise in youth suicide rates cannot be explained by a single issue or cause but is a combination of a number of complex and diverse factors such as family discord, isolation and depression, finding a solution to the problem will not be easy. It is not just a matter of providing more funding but of ensuring a coordinated approach to suicide prevention between national and state bodies with both state and federal government working in close cooperation and with consultation. The cost to the community of this premature loss of life is enormous. Apart from the impact on the family and peers, the estimate for years of potential life lost due to suicide was more than 230,000 for the period 1983 to 1992 alone.

We, as a government, have a responsibility to do something about this dreadful situation. We have the opportunity to take future positive steps to reduce this premature loss of life—and I hope that we do—effectively and efficiently and to make a long-term commitment. When we do that and as we do that, I know we will have the support of the opposition.