Press conference with Assistant Minister McBride, Cairns – 15 April 2026

MATT SMITH, MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: Well, good morning and thanks for coming for the opening of this Medicare Mental Health Centre. This is a really important step in addressing mental health issues. I've been very open throughout the campaign and my time as a Member of Parliament about my own mental health struggles upon the end of basketball. And a facility such as this would have been a real game-changer for me to be able to find a way to get the help that I needed early on, rather than wallow in what turned out to be a very long real bad struggle with depression. So, to have these kind of facilities available, particularly in the regions where we know people have lower- or higher incidence of mental health illness, is really, really important. 

Combined with the new online stuff, medicarementalhealthcheckin.gov.au, there is now so many different ways that you can get on top of your mental health early in the piece before it becomes debilitating, before it can really get you down. It's very easy to see physical injuries - I've had a number over the 20-odd years I've been running around. But it's the mental health injuries that people don't see, and so many people are smiling their way through something that they maybe don't understand. So, places like this, places like the online support that is now available through this Labor Government, is really giving people the leg up they need to be the best versions of themselves. Because ultimately, that's what we want for absolutely everybody in the community. 

I'd like to welcome Assistant Minister for Mental Health, Emma McBride, here. It's fantastic that she's come all this way from Dobell to open this clinic here today. And thank you for your presence, and I'll now hand it over to you.

ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA MCBRIDE: Thank you very much, Matt. You are such a powerful advocate for your community, and particularly sharing your own story of mental health, it's something that- mental health affects so many people in our community, and to have an advocate like yourself speaking up for your community results in services like this. 

And I'm so proud to be here today for the official opening of the Medicare Mental Health Centre in Cairns, one of 92 we're opening across the country, 24 in Queensland, the 15th opening in Queensland. And we're already seeing the difference it’s making to local people and communities, where someone can walk in, where they don't need an appointment, they don't need a diagnosis, and importantly, all free and backed by Medicare. 

I worked in acute adult inpatient units for nearly 10 years, and I saw people in distress end up in crisis simply because there wasn't support available to them in the community sooner. And we're now providing this right here in Cairns. I've already heard today of people who've been able to walk into the centre, who've been able to receive the wraparound support they need. And importantly, these centres are staffed by people with lived experience, peer workers and clinical expertise - mental health professionals, social workers, mental health nurses, psychologists - to make sure that whatever your needs are, whatever your circumstances, that the support and care can be tailored to you to meet those needs. 

I'm delighted to be here today, and I want to thank the Primary Health Network and Mind, the lead agency, for the work that they've done to get this service up and running in the local community. And I know the benefit that it has provided already since it opened in February and the difference that it will make to local people in the community as the service continues to grow. So, thank you to everybody who's been part of today, and we're delighted to be able to provide this in the local community.

Matt also mentioned Medicare Mental Health Check In. It's our new free digital mental health service. Someone can reach that by calling 1800-595-212, and after a brief assessment, will be able to be linked in with the service that's most appropriate to them. It might be walking into a centre like this in Cairns. It might be talking to one of our trained professional mental health workers in therapy sessions over the phone or via video. What we're trying to do is break down any barriers to access so that people can get the support they need sooner and in their communities.

JOURNALIST: And how important, you kind of touched on it, is preventative care so that we're preventing people from getting to crisis? 

MCBRIDE: We know, and Matt's touched on his own personal story, but there is an increase in psychological distress in communities. There's lots of drivers of that distress. It might be people overwhelmed by work, relationship breakdown, the loss of the family. And if people can get support sooner, early intervention, we know that it can help them to recover and heal and go on to live, as Matt said, their best lives. And that's what we want to do. We want to make sure that anybody who needs support, wherever they live, can get that support sooner and free under Medicare. 

JOURNALIST: And do you anticipate this will take some of the stress off hospitals? 

MCBRIDE: We have seen- and I visited the Townsville Medicare Mental Health Centre recently, and their anecdotal data suggested about almost 24 per cent of people that came to their centre would have otherwise gone to the emergency department. And having worked in acute inpatient units and seeing people brought in by ambulance or brought in by police, if someone can get that support sooner and in the community, and it avoids a hospital presentation, it's much better for them, and it also will reduce pressure on the hospital and mental health inpatient services. 

JOURNALIST: Can you tell us a bit more about the centre? Is it still high-quality care? Is it ongoing care? What kind of conditions can people come here with? 

MCBRIDE: So somebody could walk in, someone with their own experience of mental health challenges or someone, a family member, or someone who cares for them to get information and advice. What is also available is more ongoing care if that's what somebody needs. And as I mentioned, this is quality care provided by multidisciplinary teams, so mental health nurses, mental health social workers, psychologists. So, if someone does need more wraparound support and care, that that is also available to them. 

And also, it's important to note that this service is over extended hours and it will be scaling up in the near future, next month I believe, to be being seven days a week and open from 9am until 9pm. So that whenever someone does need to seek support, that that support is more readily available to them. 

JOURNALIST: And did you say there was 15 others opened in Queensland? Are there any others in regional Queensland? 

MCBRIDE: Yes, there are. And I've had the real honour of being able to open centres in Mount Isa, in Kingaroy. I've opened centres in Gladstone and in Rockhampton. And there'll be one that's under establishment in the Torres Strait as well. So, we're trying to make sure that, wherever you live, there is a service that's available to you closer to home to be able to improve access and reduce barriers to care. 

And we also acknowledge that Australia is a big country and we wanted to make sure that our new digital service was available to everybody as well. So, if you do live in a more remote part of Australia, there's also our new digital service in partnership with St Vincent's Health Australia, with expert clinicians who are trained in mental health to be able to support you. So, a network of, now, 92- growing to 92 Medicare mental health centres across the country. The new check-in digital mental health service. 

And also, it's worth noting that in Cairns with your headspace, given the demand of headspace locally - and you would know that's a service for 12 to 25 year olds - that headspace has been recently granted more than $500,000 to be able to upgrade to meet the growing demand. And it would be one of 30 headspaces across the country that become a headspace Plus. headspace Plus is a new model for young people with more complex or severe mental ill health, to be able to provide that wraparound support for them in the community. So, a big investment on behalf of the Albanese-Labor Government in Cairns in mental health and suicide prevention, and right across Queensland. 

JOURNALIST: And will this centre also be available to young people, or is it more geared towards adults? 

MCBRIDE: So the centres are designed - we have headspace for 12 to 25 year olds - the centres, we are seeing across the country that young adults are walking into the centres. So, if a 17 or 18 year old walks into a centre, they will be made very welcome. And they might then be linked in with headspace or another more youth focused service depending on what their needs are. 

JOURNALIST: And being walk-in, how do you anticipate- if there's a high demand, how are patients all going to be seen? 

MCBRIDE: And this is something that we've seen in these centres, because they're bringing together drop-in, walk-in, with booked clinical appointments. So, anybody who walks in will be warmly greeted, will be able to be provided initial support. And it may then be that they will then be booked in, in the very near future, for an appointment - might be with the social worker or with a psychologist. So, we're seeing that balance very well in the now more than 50 centres that we have up and running around the country. 

JOURNALIST: Was there one going to be built in Mareeba as well? Is that right? 

MCBRIDE: There would be one in Moorooka that is being built. 

JOURNALIST: Not Mareeba, okay. So, here in Torres Strait on Thursday Island, that part of Queensland? 

MCBRIDE: That's right, yes. 

JOURNALIST: Great. And just to be clear, this doesn't replace emergency department sort of issues. If you've got a serious mental health issue that's sort of a very strong importance, still to go to ED? 

MCBRIDE: If someone is experiencing an acute episode of mental ill health, then the emergency department would be a safe and appropriate place for them to go. But what we're intending to do is to provide earlier intervention, wraparound support in the community so fewer people in psychological distress end up in crisis and needing acute inpatient admissions. But having worked acute inpatient services, they are important and sometimes they are the most appropriate place for somebody to get the right kind of support and care. 

JOURNALIST: So this Medicare mental health clinic is going to, hopefully, reduce the impacts of mental health in the ED…? 

MCBRIDE: We have seen that. I mentioned in Townsville that their early data suggests that about 24 per cent of people that come to the Townsville Medicare Mental Health Centre have said that they would otherwise have gone to the emergency department. So, there is clinical staff and safe care that is available here. And we are seeing that in some of the other centres that there is a reduced number of presentations or admissions through ED to the mental health inpatient units.

JOURNALIST: And it will also act as a preventative so that the situation won’t go as acute that they need that emergency care? 

MCBRIDE: That's how these centres have been designed. As I mentioned, having worked in acute inpatient services I saw people brought in by ambulance or brought in by police because distress had escalated to crisis simply because there wasn't support sooner. And so what we're trying to do here in Cairns, and right across Queensland and around the country, is to make sure that support is available sooner, that people can get it tailored to meet their needs and to help them to live their best lives. 

JOURNALIST: Yeah, great. Thank you.

MCBRIDE: Thank you.

JOURNALIST: Sorry. Will a psychologist be able to diagnose mental illness? Is that available here?

MCBRIDE: This is a model that brings together lived experience, peer workers and clinical expertise. So yes, there are psychologists available here. And what we're doing is we're making sure, across the country, that our Medicare Mental Health Centres are networked to a virtual network of psychiatrists and psychologists. So, if somebody does need that sort of more expert care or a different kind of support, that that will also be available to them and for free.