Australian bureaucrats are pushing for new laws that would outlaw “mental health-related vilification” and prevent employers from discriminating against mentally ill applicants.
The government’s National Mental Health Commission last year submitted a report to Health Minister Mark Butler demanding a federal human rights charter and legislation banning mental health-based discrimination, The Age reported.
The report found that one in four people would not employ someone with bipolar disorder or depression, or who self harmed, and one in two would decline to hire applicants with schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder.
As of 2022, about 4.26 million Australians (21.5% of the population aged 16 to 85) admitted having a mental disorder during the previous 12 months, while 8.5 million (42.9%) reported having one in their lifetime. 17.6% had been prescribed at least one mental health medication over the year prior, including 21.6% of females.
“The patchwork of … legislative and regulatory arrangements is leading to potential inconsistencies of experiences and outcomes,” the 130-page NMHC document states.
“The protections offered to people with lived experience [of mental ill-health] under disability discrimination legislation may be limited by a lack of awareness or resonance with the concept of ‘disability’.”
The report also found that the majority of mentally ill Australians claim to be treated unfairly by insurers, and called on the government to stop insurance companies for charging higher fees based on mental health diagnoses.
“A better balance is needed to ensure that risk assessments do not inappropriately exclude people with personal lived experience by basing assessments on stereotypes or misinformation, or by failing to take into account protective factors that may prevent distress escalating,” the report states.
A source familiar with the NMHC plan told The Age the government appeared to be ignoring the report, but a spokesperson said it had been handed to federal and state health departments for consideration.
