Lyn Bender is in the social welfare industry and she is touting for business. She could not care if the entire Australian population was welfare dependent, as long as Lyn and her mates maintain their empires and their government superannuation.

Lyn says that suicides "appear" to rise under conservative governments. Could we have some statistics please? My understanding of why suicide is rising in Australia is because of rising illegal hard drug use, causing depression leading to suicide. But you can bet that Lyn, as a trendy lefty, is a staunch advocate for legalising drug use and setting up more injecting rooms staffed by ever more public servants.

It may send the country broke, but it creates more public service jobs.

The flippant attitudes that socialist people like Lyn have towards anything which is productive and profitable is best illustrated in once Socialist run Greece. The Greeks enacted a law that anyone who was in a "high risk" public service job (like a SWAT team) could retire at 50 on full pay. The race was on to amongst Greeks to have their particular occupations reclassified as "high risk" to get on the gravy train. The socialist government knew how to buy votes by playing Santa Claus to any large group who wanted to get in on the scam and stiff the taxpayers.

The socialist government had no money to pay for it so it just borrowed and borrowed from the Euro banks until somebody realised that the Greeks had no intention of paying it back. That is why Greece is bust. A stupid socialist government who had no idea how to run an economy but who knew how to buy votes.

If some of the people who retired on full pay at 50 and became parasites on the Greek taxpayers are committing suicide because they do not want to go back to work, then good riddance.

If any person is interested in accurate statistics of deaths by suicide, the best way to verify these is to check the site of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The ABS itself admits that such statistics may not always be precise. But it offers reasons why inaccuracies may occur and notes ABS efforts to prevent further understatements.
It takes some years to obtain what the ABS terms 'finalised' results. The most recent are, as stated, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Deaths by suicide have never been so high as during these Howard years. But, tragically, it may be expected that when 2013 is finalised the results during the ALP years will be no better; they may be worse. Indeed, funding during one of these (2% of the health budget) was described in The Age as "an act of contempt" toward our severely mentally ill. As noted in the Australian New Zealand Health Policy research, for Australia's severely mentally ill "There are no gains." Statistically, there have been no gains for nearly 98 years as the suicide rate, during all governments, has inexorably increased.

Hi carol83

Can you produce the actual link to the ABS website and quote actual suicide per 100,000 figures to back up your claims?

Without concerted statistical attention the whole debate in the article appears to be an anti-Abbott expression of political views by typically left-wing youngish female psychologists.

Pete

Hi Killarney. Are we looking at the same graphs? The first two years of Howard's government were the highest for that 22 year period, continuing the trend started under Keating. The election was in March 1996, so I think the honours for that year have to be shared. By 1998 we're back down to levels equal to those of Labor, and the trend continues to fall until 2006, being below Hawke and Keating from 2002 on. Slight rise in 2007 then a slight dip and a rise right through to 2010. Best data point under Julia Gillard.

I'd be very careful using the age break ups. There are 1800 suicides more or less a year. They have 13 age breaks split by gender, giving an average sample of around 70 for each age and gender split. Results will bounce around for statistical reasons, not necessarily because things have changed.

"Atman

Have another look at the MindFrame graphs in Graham's link. There was a particularly serious spike in male suicides in the 20-40 and 65+ age group in the 5 years after Howard took office." - Killarney

Incorrect. Not according to the ABS, whose data I would trust the most. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by+Subject/4125.0~Jan+2012~Main+Features~Suicides~3240

In fact they increased significantly when Labor took office in 2007 after a downward trend under Howard.

This emotional distress and Government of the day story is just another attempt by the Left to "prove" that conservative Governments are heartless exploiters of people when in fact, it is the Labor Government which plays one part of society against another and cruelly taxes energy use is likely to cause more distress for people particularly the poor and elderly.

Also, the data is correlative not causative and anyone who would think that the Government of the day directly affects suicide rates is, to put it mildly, statistically challenged and knows nothing about the precipitators of suicidal behaviour. Mood state, disability, chronic mental health problems, untreated trauma, severe loss and availability of means such as guns, drugs etc. In addition, social contagion of self harm behaviour among youth is becoming more prevalent and changed economic circumstances are also a major issue in some cases.

Naive and simplistic explanations which follow an ideological bent always appeal to those on the Left who love to have a cause, imaginary or not.