MEDIA RELEASE
10 September 2026
Federal Member for Fisher Andrew Wallace MP has called for a renewed national focus on suicide prevention as new data reveals financial and social pressures continue to take a serious toll on Australians.
The latest Suicide Prevention Australia Community Tracker found almost three in four Australians are experiencing heightened distress, while around one in nine experienced suicidal behaviour in the past 12 months. Among Australians who are not working and not retired, that rises to 19 per cent.
In Fisher alone, AIHW data records 103 deaths from suicide between 2018 and 2022. The electorate’s age-standardised rate of 11.8 deaths per 100,000 people is below the national electorate average of 12.8, but Mr Wallace said more than 100 local lives lost in five years was a devastating figure that could never be accepted as inevitable.
Cost of living remains the leading source of elevated distress, while housing affordability and job insecurity are among the issues causing acute distress.
Mr Wallace said those pressures were increasingly visible in the Fisher community.
“Local organisations like Gateway Care are supporting thousands of families with food rescue and low-cost groceries. When more families need help putting food on the table and homelessness services are under increasing pressure, we cannot pretend those pressures stop at people’s wallets,” Mr Wallace said.
“Mental health has long been one of my key pillars as the Federal Member for Fisher and prevention has to be at the centre of our response.
“Labor has a National Suicide Prevention Strategy, but a strategy without the funding to implement it will not save lives. Suicide Prevention Australia has itself criticised the Government for failing to adequately fund implementation and is calling for increased and sustained investment in prevention.
“At a time when cost of living, housing insecurity and job uncertainty are driving serious distress, prevention cannot be an afterthought in the Budget.”
Mr Wallace represented Australia on a parliamentary mental health delegation to the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden and Canada, back in 2017, meeting researchers, practitioners, policymakers and officials to examine international best practice in mental health and suicide prevention.
“One lesson was clear. We cannot wait until someone reaches breaking point before we intervene.
“Nearly a decade later, the latest data reinforces exactly that lesson. Almost three in four Australians are experiencing heightened distress, with cost of living, job insecurity and housing affordability among the major pressures.
“The warning signs are there. The challenge for government is to act on them earlier, before distress becomes crisis.”
“Suicide prevention is not just about what happens inside the health system. Financial distress, housing insecurity, unemployment, isolation and relationship breakdown can all push people towards crisis.
“The latest data also tells us only 22 per cent of Australians feel very or extremely prepared to help someone showing signs of suicidal thoughts.
“That is where prevention starts. Recognising distress earlier, knowing what to do and making sure there is somewhere to turn before a difficult period becomes a crisis.
“We need to reach people before they reach crisis, not simply build a system that waits for them at the other end.”
[ENDS]
Media Contact: Brendan West – 0402 556 646 – Brendan.west@aph.gov.au