The Hon. James Merlino MP joins budget webinar lineup

The Hon. James Merlino MP, Deputy Premier and Victoria's Minister for Mental Health, will discuss the Victorian State Budget at a free webinar next week.

Minister Merlino will appear live at Mental Health Victoria's event Dissecting the Victorian Budget on 5 May 2022. He will join representatives from consumer and carer peaks and experts in health economics.

"We are delighted that Minister Merlino is able to join us in person for this webinar," said John Foley, Joint Acting CEO of Mental Health Victoria.

"We know from recent polling done by Orygen that mental health is very much front of mind for Australian voters.

"This year Victorians will be voting in both State and Federal elections. There is a great deal of interest in how the major political parties plan to address the pressing need in mental health and wellbeing.

"We very much look forward to hearing what Minister Merlino has to say on the subject."

A deep dive into mental health budgets

Dissecting the Federal Budget is the second in Mental Health Victoria's Thought Leaders series of free webinars.

Last month's webinar, which explored the mental health spend in the recent Federal Budget, was attended by more than 400 people from across government and the broader mental health and wellbeing community.

Minister Merlino will be joined at next week's event by Craig Wallace, CEO of consumers peak VMIAC, and Marie Piu, CEO of carers peak Tandem.

The other speakers include:

• Cathy Mihalopoulos, Professor of Health Economics and Head of the Health Economics Division at Monash University
• Annabel Brebner, Director at independent economics, policy and strategy advisory firm ACIL Allen
• Dr Jemimah Ride, Research Fellow at the Health Economics Unit, Centre for Health Policy at the University of Melbourne

Registrations are open now.