STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator McDONALD (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (13:00): I rise to recognise an organisation doing extraordinary work in the industries that are vital to this country but where too many workers are struggling in silence. Today I met with representatives of MATES Australia to discuss their work to prevent suicide and improve mental health across construction, mining, energy and manufacturing.

Now, these are industries that I know well as the shadow minister for resources and northern Australia. They are industries full of capable, resilient, hardworking Australians. But resilience does not mean invulnerability, and the statistics confronting these workers are sobering.

Construction workers are nine times more likely to die of suicide than in an accident at work, and mining workers have reported a suicide attempt rate three times higher than that of the general Australian population. MATES has highlighted research showing that around a third of young apprentices have experienced suicidal thoughts in the previous 12 months. Particularly in remote and regional Australia, the workplace can be one of the most important communities and support networks that a person has, and that's what I think MATES understands particularly well.

MATES began in the construction industry in Queensland in 2008 and has since expanded into mining, energy and manufacturing. In 2021, the World Health Organization recognised the MATES Model as an example of best practice in workplace suicide prevention, and its philosophy is beautifully simple: mates helping mates. Instead of expecting every struggling worker to recognise that they need help, find a service and make that difficult first phone call, MATES builds the capacity of everyone to recognise distress within the workplace and among colleagues.

Workers are trained to notice when a mate isn't travelling well, and volunteer connectors are trained to help that person find appropriate support. More advanced Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training workers can help keep someone safe during a crisis until professional help is available. Behind that workplace network sit professional case management and a confidential, 24-hour helpline.

The program doesn't aim to turn a supervisor, a fitter or a sparky into a psychologist. It tries to give ordinary people the confidence to ask a mate, 'Are you alright?' or even the harder question, 'Are you having suicidal thoughts?' and, importantly, know what to do when the answer to the first question is no or, to the second, yes. The scale of what MATES has already achieved is remarkable.

Across its program, almost 400,000 workers have been inducted, more than 39,000 connectors have been trained and more than 18½ thousand cases have been managed. But MATES is also looking upstream. Its Blueprint For Better Mental Health And Suicide Prevention helps employers identify risks before they result in someone reaching crisis point.

The blueprint gives businesses practical guidance to identify harmful aspects of work, improve mental health awareness, encourage early intervention and establish policies that help people remain at work or successfully return to work after experiencing mental health difficulties. Now, this matters especially for small and medium-sized workplaces—workplaces that government has loaded up with additional responsibilities to manage workers health but that don't have the capacity or the resources for a specialist HR department and access to specialist advice.

Both are increasingly expected to identify and manage complex psychosocial hazards in the workplace, and Mates is trying to help bridge that gap. There's a strong economic argument for doing so. Material presented to me today shows that psychological industry claims are taking almost five times longer to resolve than physical injury claims and that mental health claims have become the costliest form of workplace injury.

Preventing psychological harm is not only compassionate; it helps keep skilled people at work, supports productivity, reduces disruption to businesses and of course helps families and communities. Mates is now advocating for a national investment to expand its blueprint coordination model across every state and territory, and the Queensland experience demonstrates how encouraging that investment can be.

I want to thank Mates Australia and everyone involved in its programs, particularly the thousands of workers who volunteered to become connectors and undertake suicide prevention training.