“[The commission] should specify desirable outcomes such as measures of improved mental health,and then require the provision of information about how well those measures are being met,” he said.
But he said it was failing to do so because it was not truly independent and lacked the legislated authority of entities such as the Productivity Commission or the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,which Fels led for 14 years before chairing the mental health commission from its inception in 2012 until 2018.
“There’s not a lot of confidence that the commissioners,acting as a commission,can speak freely and uninhibitedly. That is the key point,” Fels said.
“The original concept[was] to set it up as an independent body that would hold the Commonwealth government to account and as a result enjoy the confidence of the community,especially the mental health community.”
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Fels said that had gradually changed since the mid-2010s as its independence was downplayed and it took on a more advisory function.
The commission,which has $24.7 million in total resources this financial year,sits within the federal Health Department and its chief executive reports to Health Minister Mark Butler. CEO Christine Morgan,who was appointed in 2019,was also national suicide prevention adviser to former prime minister Scott Morrison until 2020.