Australia's failed suicide policies

Now for a somewhat amusing postscript to this very grim story….

We've had One Nation Senator Tyron Whitten in parliament this week, asking questions in Senate Estimates of Health Department bureaucrats about Australia's suicide prevention policies. Boy, was that a farce.

The smug, evasiveness of these high-ranking public servants was sickening. Their glib, deceptive answers to Whitten's straightforward questions spoke volumes about why our Australia's suicide policies are failing.

Asked why men - three quarters of all suicide deaths - are not listed among the 15 priority populations in the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement the deputy secretary tied himself in knots for four minutes before conceding the Senator was correct, then assuring him that men are "embedded" in the broader strategy. Asked about Australia's catastrophic performance compared to the global average, the head of the National Suicide Prevention Office stunningly admitted she had no data on international comparisons. Asked why none of the federally funded programs address the situational drivers of male suicide - family breakdown, loss of children, financial ruin - the deputy secretary had the effrontery to start talking about domestic violence services.

It was quite a performance, these self-satisfied, blinkered bureaucrats so calmly batting away questions about why they choose not to protect the most vulnerable men in our society. They just don't give a damn.

At the end came the best moment of all. Smiling sweetly, one of the top cats chimed in, recommending to Whitten the "wonderful work" of Dan Repacholi's Healthy Men Community Conversations - the feminist propaganda exercise this article exposes.

These are the people responsible for it all. Ideologues with government salaries, feminist agendas, and little concern for the seven men who will die today.