Minister must lead by example on empathy

TUCKED away on page 77 of Saturday’s Bulletin was an article by the local member for Fadden, Stuart Robert.

He is of course also the Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

He had a number of messages for readers that would have come as no surprise: last year “was no ordinary year” and “we faced challenges we hadn’t seen before in our lifetime”.

He went on to say that, for him, the spotlight fell squarely on mental health and that COVID proved a stark reminder we are all vulnerable.

Not only should we prioritise mental health and wellbeing but we should take care of others and “rebuild our compassion”.

For some, these statements may ring a bit hollow, especially given Robert’s entanglement in the disastrous Robodebt scheme that unfairly and unlawfully accused thousands of welfare recipients of owing a debt on their Centrelink payments.

Many of these were among the most vulnerable in our community who already had mental health issues which, they claimed, were exacerbated by the strain of dealing with the false accusations.

At least two mothers firmly believed the suicides of their sons were linked to the pressure they were under.

Mr Robert refused to be drawn on the subject, merely saying suicide is a “complex” issue. If only he had provided contact details for counselling services for these people as he did in his article to the Gold Coast community it might have provided some semblance that he took this issue seriously.

Could it be he is out of touch or may underestimate the chaos caused by the stresses of job or financial uncertainty?

It seems he is. When the government first imposed lockdowns to reduce the spread of COVID, many experienced concern about how they’d survive with little or no income.

As a result, the number of inquiries on the MyGov website soared after the announcement and the site crashed.

Did Stuart Robert see that coming? No, he immediately claimed, incorrectly, the large numbers were the result of a cyber-attack which only served to raise the level of community panic even higher.

Mr Robert talked of giving 2021 “a red-hot go” and urged us to be caring to others.

Let’s hope this will happen but also that we see this minister lead by example and show both empathy and compassion.

Go on, Mr Robert, give it a red-hot go!