Canberra Liberals call on Mental Health Minister to release full report following review of ANU stabbing

Shadow Minister for Mental Health Ed Cocks has hit out at the Mental Health Minister following reports that the Labor-Greens government has no intention of releasing the full report into the events surrounding the stabbing of ANU students by an admitted patient of the ACT mental health system.

Mr Cocks said Canberrans deserve to be safe, feel safe, and they deserve to know when something goes wrong in the mental health system and what is being done to address the significant issues.

“It is incredibly concerning to hear that the Minister has no intention of releasing this report in full,” Mr Cocks said.

“Both the Dhulwa Secure Mental Health Facility, and the Gawanngal unit at the centre of this incident are located in close proximity to vulnerable people, and the Government must reveal exactly what has gone wrong.

“This is a Minister whose first reaction seems to always be to hide the story, or pretend it doesn’t exist. Yet in just the last two years of this Minister’s tenure in charge of the mental health system, we have seen:

• Disturbingly high rates of occupational violence at the Dhulwa unit;

• The violent killing of a man admitted to the Adult Mental Health Unit;

• Disasterous handling of multiple patient information breaches; and

• A secret review into the toxic and dysfunctional office of the Minister herself.

“Various details of both the incident, and the events leading up to it, including the identity of the alleged offender, are already public knowledge.

“If the Minister persists in hiding the full story, it will continue to undermine trust in Canberra’s mental health system. The Labor-Greens government must come clean,” Mr cocks concluded.