small business

More than half a million Australians will experience mental illness during the election campaign.

As you read these words, it is possible the Prime Minister is in C1 (Commonwealth 1) driving down Dunrossil Drive to visit the Governor General, to ask that the Parliament be prorogued and a general election be held.

In tonight’s Federal Budget speech, the Treasurer the Hon Josh Frydenberg MP said:

We frequently think of economists as being obsessed with money. How do we make money? How do we spend money? How do we turn the money that we have into even more money?

This week is Harmony Week, where the simple message is ‘everyone belongs’… Two simple words, but a concept that is somehow dividing and causing great harm to many.

Over the coming weeks we will edge towards a Federal Budget, and then a Federal Election, where many things will be uncertain, some things unclear and definitely a lot of things under pressure. Because that’s the nature of politics and the state and federal environments in which we operate.

Last Friday, when heading home from another thought provoking TheMHS Summer Forum in Sydney, I met one of Australia’s great champions of mental health.

Engaging our consumer and carers as experts in mental health reform is a key necessity and challenge for all governments, and the mental health sector more broadly.

Advocating for Members of Mental Health Australia and for change, I often have the privilege of spending quite a bit of time at Parliament House in Canberra, briefing Members and Senators and their staff about mental health reform.

Imagine this scenario, or something similar, for the two million small business owners in Australia…