Enough Silence: It’s Time to Fund Suicide Prevention in Australia

Today, I had the privilege of standing alongside 30 other people with lived and living experience of suicide to co-sign an open letter addressed to the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, calling for urgent suicide prevention funding in Australia.

This moment was a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when those with firsthand experience speak with clarity, courage, and collective intent.

This letter is more than a statement - it is a plea. A plea from those who have lost loved ones, from those who live with suicidal distress, and from those who have walked the fragile line between survival and silence. Our message is simple: you cannot say you care about suicide prevention if you won’t fund it directly.

Why Funding Suicide Prevention in Australia Matters

The release of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy was an important and long-awaited milestone. For the first time, lived experience is embedded as a core component of how we address suicide in this country. But as the letter rightly asks: what good is a strategy if there’s no funding to push it forward?

We need more than recognition - we need action. We need long-term investment in peer-led programs, aftercare, safe spaces, and evidence-informed services that are designed with and by those who have lived it. We need continuity, not stop-start pilot projects that fall away just as they begin to gain trust. And we need suicide prevention funding in Australia that reaches beyond the health system - because suicide prevention is not just a health issue; it is a social, economic, and community one too.

What made this letter so powerful was not just the number of signatures, but the truth it held: We are the faces behind the statistics. Every person who signed this letter carries pain - but also wisdom, resilience, and a deep commitment to changing the system so others don’t have to walk the same path.

To Jennifer Waltmon, thank you for your fierce, compassionate leadership. And to Suicide Prevention Australia, thank you for continuing to centre lived experience in the national dialogue, not as an afterthought, but as the foundation of sustainable change.

The 2025 Federal Election must be a turning point. We cannot keep losing lives while waiting for promises to turn into policy. It is time for our government to act - to truly listen, and to match words with investment.

We will not be silent. Not now. Not ever.

📖 Read the full open letter here

Based in Perth, WA, LEXs provides telehealth counselling across Australia for individuals, couples, and NDIS participants. Services extend to Social Work supervision, Peer Work supervision, training, and keynote speaking on men’s mental health, CaLD community wellbeing, and culturally responsive suicide prevention; helping people and organisations make mental-health care more compassionate, inclusive, and effective. LEXs provides services across Australia, supporting clients in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and beyond. To learn more about our work across Australia, visit LEXs' services page.