We move that the Senate

(a) notes that:
(i) Monday, 10th September 2012, is World Suicide Prevention Day;

(b) recognises that:
(i) Suicide is the leading cause of death in Australia for men under 44 years of age and women under 34 years of age;
(ii) The most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports death due to suicide at 2,132 people per year, which amounts to 6 deaths by suicide a day or one every 4 hours;
(iii) Suicide remains underreported and estimates suggest that the total number of deaths could be as high as 2,500 a year;

Commemorating today's World Suicide Prevention Day, Australian Greens spokesperson for Mental Health, Senator Penny Wright, said more community awareness and accurate data on suicide were needed to address the high incidence of suicide in Australia.

Senator Wright will move a motion in the Senate today that calls on all governments to promote public awareness and remove barriers to the accurate collection of suicide data in Australia, as recommended in the 2010 Senate committee report The Hidden Toll: Suicide in Australia.

We move:

That the Senate

(a) notes that:

(i) Last week, from 6 to 12 August 2012, it was National Homeless Persons' Week;
(ii) On any given night in Australia, approximately 105,000 people are experiencing homelessness;

(b) recognises that:

Christine Milne speaks to Rural Press Club of Victoria about building the relationship between the Greens and regional Australia, about the government's food policy and about Country of Origin Labelling.

The high proportion of prisoners with a mental illness shows that Australian jails have become the psychiatric crisis centres of the 21^st century, the Australian Greens said today.  

Speaking in response to a report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Greens spokesperson for Mental Health, Senator Penny Wright, said: "We know that people with a mental illness are grossly overrepresented in the criminal justice system.

Australian Greens spokesperson for Mental Health, Penny Wright, and Greens Leader Christine Milne today launched the Greens' Rural Mental Health Services Online Consultation website in Port Augusta to give Australians living in rural areas a chance to have their say on mental health services in their regions.             

I enjoyed kicking off my RRR MH tour in WA in Albany, a port city 400km south of Perth, with a population of about 30,000. Friendly locals, lovely old architecture and a notable whaling museum well worth a visit to remind us of our past and how practices which we once thought acceptable do change with time. Many thanks to the people I visited who were welcoming and generous with their time and ideas. Thank-you Albany!

Geraldton is a port city, 400km north of Perth, in the Mid-West, with a population of just over 40,000 including up to 7,000 Aboriginal residents. It is a centre for mining, fishing, wheat, sheep and tourism.