Former Australian politician David Leyonhjelm has been outspoken about the issue of male suicide in this country.
- Six out of eight suicides every single day in Australia are men.
- The number of men who die by suicide in Australia every year is nearly double the national road toll.
Leyonhjelm talked with me about the false assumption that suicide has the same causes in men and women. He said:
“I started to take an interest in this, only after I’d got involved in the mess that’s family law in the Senate. Male suicide is many times higher than female suicide, and yet no one talks about it and it’s not getting any better. The more I dug into it, I realised this is as much a scandal as the Family Law scandal, the denial of access to children that goes on, the allegations of domestic violence and pedophilia and all the lies that go on surrounding that, and the whole domestic violence issue – with all the money being spent on it but not a word about male victims or female perpetrators…
We hear lots and lots about suicide; it’s always referred to as mental illness, which I think is incorrect… It’s always assumed that whatever works in women will work in men, but the statistics don’t support that. Despite everything that’s being done, it’s not helping… What we’re seeing is no solutions… You just can’t blame it on mental illness. We know what some of the triggers are, and they’re not mental illness.”
Isn’t it time for an honest conversation about male suicide?
Isn’t it time to get real about the connection between the family law system and soaring male suicide rate?
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Corrine Barraclough has a journalism career spanning 20 years, including senior positions at national magazines in London, New York & Sydney. She embraced the whirlwind of celebrity and entertainment journalism and the heady lifestyle that went with it before walking away from it all to live on the Gold Coast and pursue a balanced life.
The Corrine Barraclough Show discusses family law, its impact on mental health and the damage of the gender-bias in mainstream media.
