March, 2022 - Suzanna Sheed

Suzanna Sheed Independent Member of Parliament for Shepparton dressed in business suit and holding papers stands in the Legislative Assembly and address parliament

Sheed calls for better mental health services

March 30, 2022/in Media Releases

Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called on the Health Minister, Martin Foley, to ensure a new mental health unit for Goulburn Valley Health is funded in the upcoming State Budget.

During a sitting of parliament this week, Ms Sheed highlighted Shepparton district’s youth mental health crisis.

She spoke about how the pandemic significantly increased the level of distress and mental health issues of young people across the state.

“A significant investment in a new mental health unit at Goulburn Valley Health has been identified as a high priority for Stage 2 of the redevelopment of our regional health service and my plea to the government is to invest in this as a matter of urgency,” Ms Sheed said.

“I was recently contacted by a constituent, a 20-year-old woman, who sought my assistance to advocate on behalf of young people in our community who suffer from mental health issues and have been unable to get the supports that they need.

“She said that the people she knew of were clear in their message that there are not sufficient services available to provide the treatment they required when and where they needed them.

“She pointed out that while Shepparton has organisations like Headspace, Primary Care Connect, Wellways, and many online services available in rural areas, the waiting time for some of these is up to six months or more.”

Ms Sheed said her constituent reached out to people on social media to ask them what their experiences were like with the mental health system in Shepparton.

“The responses portrayed a tragic picture of the situation,” Ms Sheed said.

“So many talked about the wait times to see a psychiatrist or a psychologist, the difficulty in getting a mental health plan for themselves and the lack of emergency services.

“There are many dedicated health professionals in both the public and private system, but they are simply not able to meet the demand that exists in our community.

“While further infrastructure will not alone solve the problem, it goes some way to alleviating the stresses on our current system and on those seeking their services.”

ENDS

Media contact
Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466│elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

Shepparton Electorate Multicultural Communities

March 24, 2022/in Parliament

Adjournment: My adjournment is to the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, and the action I seek is that she visit Shepparton to meet with multicultural groups and leaders in the Shepparton community. As the minister knows, Shepparton has a long, proud history of multiculturalism, where people from across the world have come together as refugees or migrants to make it their home. Whether it be our more recent arrivals from African nations or the Middle East or going back to earlier decades when Greek, Italian, Albanian and Turkish communities came to Australia and chose Shepparton district as their home, the community has welcomed them. We have a range of cultural events at the Shepparton Festival currently, where dancers, singers and performers from different cultures display their talents. We have food festivals like the St Georges Road Food Festival and the Shepparton Albanian Harvest Festival, which was on just last week.

As well as these many cultural events that we all enjoy and welcome back after cancellations in 2020 and 2021, our multicultural communities are making great strides in lifting one another up in a professional and business opportunity sense. There is a multicultural women’s group forming with a spotlight on what it really means to back one another and form a solid sisterhood, not just in friendship but in enhancing careers and employment opportunities for all women. I am excited to share a bit more about this project when it launches next week. We have many organisations, such as the Shepparton ethnic council, St Paul’s African House and Philippine House, to name just a few.

We saw the huge team effort our community made during the severe COVID-19 outbreak last year, which landed a third of our population in isolation. Our community was quick to get on their feet and ready to care for every culture when it came to translation services, culturally appropriate food and whatever services were needed in that time of emergency. It was wonderful to see every nationality volunteering to deliver food and medicine to families in isolation and helping in whatever way they could. It showed what a great community Shepparton is and how we get the job done.

I would like the minister to come and meet with some of these groups and leaders to see firsthand the progress we are making as a community and to see if she can offer any assistance to help them keep up their fantastic work, because there is always more to be done.

Answered: 13 April 2022

I thank the Member for Shepparton for her question and for the invitation to visit the local community in Shepparton.

Shepparton is home to many vibrant multicultural communities and I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the region’s commitment to promoting, celebrating and strengthening cultural diversity. I also wish to acknowledge the multicultural communities, leaders and organisations that have provided immense support to refugees and migrants to settle and call Shepparton home. The strong relationships forged by community members continues to generate positive social, cultural and economic opportunities for multicultural communities in Shepparton, even during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which has had significant impacts on the region.

I am pleased that since 2014 in the Multicultural Affairs portfolio, the Andrews Labor Government has provided close to $5 million to organisations in the Greater Shepparton Local Government Area (LGA). This includes $375,000 as part of the 2020-21 Multicultural Community Infrastructure Fund to support upgrades at the Albanian Mosque and Community Centre in Shepparton. Funding support has also been provided for diverse cultural events, including $100,000 to the Shepparton Arts Festival to host the Converge Fest across 2017-2021 as part of the Government’s Multicultural Festivals and Events program. As the Member for Shepparton noted, it is fantastic to see many of these important events back on the calendar this year.

Throughout the pandemic, the Government has provided targeted support to multicultural communities through the CALD Communities Taskforce. This includes $2.73 million provided to community organisations in the Greater Shepparton LGA through the multiple phases of the Priority Response to Multicultural Communities grants program. This funding has supported the provision of emergency and essential supports, expanded community outreach and boosted engagement in the COVID-19 vaccination program.

The CALD Communities Taskforce has supported the development and dissemination of targeted, translated and accessible communications to multicultural communities. This has ensured that information reaches multicultural communities in a timely manner to help them stay safe and well. The Taskforce established a partnership with the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters’ Council (NEMBC) to operate a multilingual new service in

19 languages, which was broadcast across 15 ethnic community radio stations, including four regional radio stations. Through this partnership, targeted communications were provided to communities in Shepparton during the COVID-19 outbreaks last year. In addition, the Taskforce provided a grant of $50,000 to the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District to develop audio and video materials about COVID-19 to be hosted on a digital hub and distributed through local community channels.

The Government is also committed to working with local communities to build social cohesion and prevent and address racism, including in Shepparton. I am pleased that we have supported four projects in the Greater Shepparton LGA through the Government’s Local Anti-Racism Initiatives Grants program designed to tackle racism in all its forms, including:

$56,000 to the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District to deliver a series of training sessions to raise cultural competency.
$91,000 to Greater Shepparton Lighthouse Ltd to increase cultural awareness and capability in Greater Shepparton primary schools.
$202,000 to Know Your Roots to build cultural understanding and social cohesion in young people.
$101,000 to Rumbalara Football and Netball Club to develop anti-racism and cultural competency courses.
This important work is supported by the Greater Shepparton Cultural Inclusion Roundtable which I established in conjunction with the Minister for Education in March 2021. The Roundtable brings together representatives from local multicultural and Aboriginal communities, The Victorian Multicultural Commission, Greater Shepparton City Council, Greater Shepparton Secondary College and key government departments and agencies with the aim of strengthening cultural inclusion at the Greater Shepparton Secondary College and across the whole local community. I look forward to seeing long lasting benefits emerging from this forum.

Finally, I would like to again thank all multicultural community leaders in Shepparton for their outstanding support and partnership throughout the pandemic. They have played a key role in ensuring that important health information is accessible and enabled access to essential services and supports to keep the community safe and well. I look forward to our continued partnership in coming years.

Thank you again to the Member for Shepparton for her question, and I look forward to visiting Shepparton and seeing more of the fantastic work that the community is doing.

The Hon. Ros Spence MP
Minister for Multicultural Affairs

Suzanna in a dark suit and organe scarf address people at the opening of the children's centre. She is holding a microphone and standing behind a podium.

Mooroopna Children and Families Centre

March 24, 2022/in Parliament

Members Statement: It was wonderful to attend the official opening of the Mooroopna children and families centre on Thursday last week by the Minister for Early Childhood, Ingrid Stitt. The centre, which is part of the Shepparton Education Plan, has been open for a few months already, and it was fantastic to see the three- and four-year-old kindergarten students thriving in this stunning new facility. The centre has everything young children need to begin their educational journey and help them transition easily into primary school, which is just next door. As well as a kindergarten, the centre has child healthcare facilities, which include a maternal and child health nurse, paediatric services and a therapeutic play specialist, and community meeting facilities. All of this provides a convenient way for parents to monitor and participate in their children’s early education. The aim is to develop happy, healthy and resilient children who will make their way through the education system with a capacity to learn and ultimately enter the workforce and live a fulfilling life. It is a program that has been done in partnership with the Julius Colman foundation and provides some really outstanding opportunities. This is a regional community where people live together, they work together and their children go to school together. Anyone who is a regional MP knows that in regional communities we all live together, we all go to the same supermarkets, we all share the same hospital—we do not look for any form of segregation, because we are a community.

Suzanna Sheed in boucle blazer and Black dress sits on a wooden park bench smiling at the camera.

Shepparton electorate mental health

March 23, 2022/in Parliament

Adjournment: My adjournment is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is that he ensure there is funding for a new mental health unit for Goulburn Valley Health in the forthcoming Victorian state budget. We have a youth mental health crisis in our region, and indeed figures show that the impact of the pandemic has significantly increased the level of distress in mental health for youth across the state.

I was recently contacted by a constituent, a 20-year-old woman, who sought my assistance to advocate on behalf of young people in our community who suffer from mental health issues and have been unable to get the supports that they need. As I spoke with this young woman it became apparent to me that she was well aware of the impact of mental health issues among the people she knew. She said these young people were very clear in their message that there were simply not sufficient services available to provide them with the treatment they needed, when and where they required it.

She pointed out that while Shepparton has organisations like Headspace, Primary Care Connect, Wellways and many of the online services across rural areas, the waiting time for some of these is up to six months. The mental health unit at Goulburn Valley Health is a 20-bed acute psychiatric inpatient unit for people 16 years and over, according to its website. That is 20 beds for a hospital that serves the municipalities of Mitchell, Murrindindi, Strathbogie, Greater Shepparton and Moira, and it is only for adults. Young people under that age have to go to Melbourne. A significant investment in a new mental health unit at Goulburn Valley Health has been identified as a high priority for stage 2 of the redevelopment of our regional health service. My plea to the government is to invest in this as a matter of urgency.

We have seen the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, and we have heard multiple times from people living in regional areas that they have been unable to access the mental health support they need when they need it. When the royal commission report was handed down at the exhibition building, we heard from two people about their experiences. They were both regional people, and they had both been turned away from a regional health service when they needed help. They were sent out to the car park.

When my young constituent advocate reached out to me, she told me that she had reached out more broadly on social media and asked many young people what their experiences with mental health in the Shepparton area were, and it really portrayed a tragic picture of the situation. So many talked about the wait times to see a psychiatrist or a psychologist, the difficulty in getting a mental health plan and the lack of emergency services. In our region we have many dedicated health professionals, who operate both in the public and the private system, but they simply cannot meet the demand that we have. While infrastructure may not solve the problem alone, it does go a significant way to relieving the stress and the demand that we are now seeing in young people’s lives.

Suzanna Sheed MP, dressed in black business dress and white blazer site at a library table surrounded by papers.

Shepparton electorate

March 22, 2022/in Parliament

Question without notice: My question is for the Minister for Health. I am advised that a constituent recently contacted Goulburn Valley Health to ascertain the status of a waitlist in relation to her child who is awaiting a child developmental and behavioural assessment. The child had been on the waiting list for 12 months, and she said that she was told that there were over 400 children on the waiting list. Minister, could you advise what the current waiting time is for a child to obtain a developmental and behavioural assessment at Goulburn Valley Health, how many children are on the waiting list and what the government is doing to address the long waiting time?

Suzanna Sheed MP sitting in Parliament house looking at camera. Camera is positioned above her in the House.

Shepparton electorate: road safety

March 10, 2022/in Parliament

Consituency Question:

Asked: 10 March 2022

My constituency question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. On 15 February this year we saw a fatal car crash on the corner of Stokes Road and the Murray Valley Highway in Strathmerton. The driver of one vehicle died and two police officers in the other were seriously injured. I visited the site on Monday. It is has Labuan Road opposite Stokes Road, a rise immediately before the intersection from an old railway line only a very short distance to give any visibility of the highway and if motorists are travelling too fast they just will not see that intersection. It has only got a give-way sign on it at the moment, so will the government take steps to have this intersection assessed with a view to installing some stop signs and rumble strips and take whatever steps are necessary to make it safe urgently?

Answer

Answered: 29 March 2022

I thank the Member for her question. I am sorry to hear of this tragic incident and my thoughts are with those involved.

Following any incident of this nature, a comprehensive fatal accident review is undertaken in conjunction with Victoria Police and the responsible road authority. In this case, the crash took place at the intersection of Labuan Road, which is managed by Moira Shire Council, and the Goulburn Valley Highway, which is managed by Regional Roads Victoria (RRV). RRV met with Victoria Police on 22February 2022.

The investigation did note some issues regarding visibility at the intersection. The Goulburn Valley Highway/ Labuan Road intersection currently is sign-posted from Labuan Road, with advanced Reduced Speed signs at 240 metres followed by Give Way signs posted at 200 metres distance from the intersection of Goulburn Valley Highway.

Given the tragic events that occurred in February I have asked DoT to work with Moira Shire to explore options to further improve safety at this location.

Shepparton land crisis

March 8, 2022/in Parliament

Adjournment: My adjournment is for the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is that he visit the Shepparton district to meet with local government and developers to discuss the current crisis in land availability for future housing and industrial needs. We have a land supply crisis in the Shepparton district, particularly in Shepparton and Tatura. The shortage of land for housing and industrial purposes is creating inflated prices for housing stock. People are being forced to look to existing properties in residential areas to refurbish them, leading to less investment properties, fewer rentals and therefore an increasing demand on social housing.

Our community is missing out on opportunities to grow, to recruit professionals and other workers and to increase economic development in our region. In what should be a time for opportunity for our region we are now faced with the challenge of a lack of availability of land. There has been significant government investment in our region in recent years—almost $800 million invested in the regional rail project that will connect Shepparton to Melbourne with nine VLocity trains a day. Major works on stage 1 of Goulburn Valley Health are nearing completion at a cost of $230 million, and it is providing the infrastructure that we need to have a fit-for-purpose health service. The investment of $120 million in the build of the new Greater Shepparton Secondary College—just opened this year—means that we have the breadth and depth of education opportunities that we have not previously had in our state education system. The $20.5 million integrated early learning centre at Mooroopna is a strong investment in early childhood education, and the recent opening of the Shepparton Art Museum, a $50 million state-of-the-art gallery, is an outstanding opportunity for the cultural development of our community, with a strong emphasis on Indigenous art.

People are looking to the regions as a place to live and work, experimenting with new ways of doing so, but in looking to the regions the major issues that people identify are supply of housing, education and health services. So while we are addressing the latter two, we have a real problem in relation to housing supply and it has been identified as one of our major challenges. So in seeking that the minister visits Shepparton district the agenda will be very much to highlight the much-needed government support necessary to ensure that all parties, including local government and our land developers, can find a way forward, whether it be through rezoning, change planning or assistance from the government with planners and the resources that we need to really ensure that we can get the subdivisions and land supply that we need.