Mental Health Commission CEO steps aside amid investigation

The chief executive of the National Mental Health Commission has stepped aside while the federal government launches an investigation into claims of bullying and dysfunction at the agency.

Health Minister Mark Butler announced the review on Monday following reports in The Saturday Paper that the commission had sacked a quarter of its workforce this month, and was being separately investigated over its operations and financial decisions.

Chief executive Christine Morgan, who reports to Butler and has led the commission since 2019, has voluntarily stepped aside while the review is conducted.

The mental health commission was established in 2012 to hold governments to account on mental health policy and has been allocated $24.7 million in total resources this financial year.

But as suicide rates spike in Australia and the mental health system becomes increasingly inaccessible, it has been criticised by its former leaders, including former chair Professor Allan Fels and former deputy chief executive Georgie Harman, who said it no longer provides an incisive source of truth about how the system is operating.

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Fels, who chaired the commission from its inception in 2012 until 2018, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age earlier this year that the commission had lost the confidence of the mental health sector and was not holding the government accountable.

There have been calls for the commission to receive statutory independence so that it can act as a proper watchdog, including in a 2020 report from the Productivity Commission.

In a statement, Butler said the commission played an important role in delivering on the government’s mental health and suicide prevention reforms, and needed to have the confidence of the public.