Amanda Hodge and staff reporters
October 21, 2005
The Australian.

JOHN Howard has called for a unified effort to solve the nation's mental health crisis, rejecting calls from his own Health Minister and some states for the commonwealth to seize responsibility.

The Prime Minister said yesterday he was concerned by a report into Australia's mental health system that warned of higher rates of suicide, homelessness, incarceration and poverty unless improvements were made.

Mr Howard said he had appointed a government team, led by his own department, to analyse the findings.

Health Minister Tony Abbott used the report to push the states to cede responsibility for health to the federal Government, claiming the health system was bedevilled by "constant cost-shifting and blame-pushing".

Just as the federal Government was moving strongly towards a national workplace relations system, it was inevitable that "sooner or later one level of government will be responsible for the entire health system".

"Given the spate of reports about the weaknesses and inadequacies in the way states have handled things like mental health ... now is as good a time as any," Mr Abbott said.

But Mr Howard overruled him, saying the issue was "not something that should become a point of conflict between the commonwealth and the states".

"We both have roles. No one level of government can escape responsibility, nor equally should any level of government seek to blame the other, either."

The Not For Service report by the Mental Health Council of Australia, the Brain and Mind Research Institute and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found the system failed one in three mental health patients. The report called for a combined funding boost of $5billion by 2010.

NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos said he was prepared to cede responsibility to the commonwealth if it committed to providing more funds. But Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia dismissed Mr Abbott's demand as political posturing and accused the commonwealth of mismanagement and underspending on policy commitments.

Additional reporting: AAP