Minister Butler’s backflip on Better Access vindicates the Coalition's criticism that the Government's changes to the Better Access program were done with inadequate consultations with key stakeholders and with little attempt to assess the impact of the changes on patients.
The Coalition Senators' dissenting report in the Community Affairs Committee inquiry into the Commonwealth’s Funding and Administration of Mental Health Services was critical of the Government's move.
"These changes caused a lot of stress to patients, their families and those practitioners treating them. It is typical of a government that can't get anything right", Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.
But backflips in mental health are not new. On 19 May 2010, then Health Minister Roxon was forced to perform the first Budget back-flip of 2010 less than a week after it was delivered to defer changes that would have prevented social workers and occupational therapists providing mental health services.
"It was the same story as now – no consultation, no heeding of the experts advice and little consideration for the impact on those suffering from serious mental conditions.