Jeff Kennett
Jeff Kennett Interview
Monday, 24 March 2008
By Dr Bianca Felix
I am in the offices of “Jeff Kennett Limited”. Jeff was notoriously the Liberal Premier of Victoria from 1992-1999. Now, he is one of the major ambassadors for Beyond Blue, a cause which he is undeniably passionate about.
The premises appear to take up the whole upper level of a generic small office building in inner Melbourne. The main decorating theme is sport! Golf and the Hawthorn Football Club predominate. (Jeff is the club’s president.)
A very tall man in a suit appears, gives me a perfunctory handshake, and then we sit down (at a HUGE oak table) and commence the questions. No small talk, no opportunity to create rapport. (In fact, that comes at the end, when Jeff appears more relaxed and engaged.) For now, he is imposing and just a shade off being intimidating.
So I launch straight into my first question, asking him if he would be enticed back into politics now that positions are being created for “ministers of mental health”. After all, Jeff has described people suffering from mental illness as his “new constituency”.
Jeff answers by launching into an obviously well rehearsed recitation of statistics: there are one million people with a mental illness in Australia, which means there are two million carers out there. Given such a large problem, any government money and action is long overdue and mental health should be given a much higher priority. But No, he will not return to politics.
Since talk of his future is somewhat stymied by what sounds suspiciously like politician-speak (worthy though the cause may be) I ask him about his past, particularly his experiences serving with the Australian Defence Forces overseas in the 1970’s, and comment that I am surprised he has become involved with depression services, rather than PTSD services. Jeff tells me that he does not attend reunions, that his time with the ADF was an education and a learning process, and that life is all about different experiences.
He also points out that Beyond Blue deals with more than Depression, including work with veterans, their children and grandchildren.
Hmmm.
Moving on, I ask Jeff if he has any thoughts about the introduction of generic “mental health clinicians” and if he shares the concern that they may mean the dumbing down of the professional mental health workforce. For the first time, he appears genuinely non-plussed! Affronted even! He shakes his head in disbelief and says that he has never heard anything about the “dumbing down” of the workforce and thinks it is an insult to say such a thing.
Jeff points out that psychologists are now recognised by Medicare and that many in the workforce do not receive adequate recognition despite being the “glue” that holds the system together. (I can just picture you all nodding in agreement with that sentiment.) Jeff points out to me that over 8000 GP’s have had their skills upgraded, that there has been additional input into medical school courses about mental heath issues, and the RANZCP is working hard to increase the number of psychiatrists being trained. (Now I am picturing you all shaking your heads.) And that none of this amounts to dumbing down! I dutifully agree, and promise to send him some relevant articles about the issue.
I sought an interview the The Jeff because one of my burning desires was to understand what prompted him to enter the area of mental health. Before the interview, I had felt sure it had something to do with one his children, or one of their friends. I was not far off the mark. The way Jeff tells the story, he was approached by his daughter in 1997 after the deaths of two young men that she knew, that were officially deemed accidental, but were probably suicides. This made him sit up and take notice – he left office in 1999 and Beyond Blue was founded in 2000. Jeff explains to me the progression from stress to anxiety to depression to serious mental illness, and his belief that it is best to target the “anxiety to depression” link in the pathway – this is the strategy of Beyond Blue.
Another of my motivations for the interview was to understand how the man who had relentlessly dismantled much of Victoria’s social justice infrastructure in pursuit of the materialistic could so quickly and completely re-invent himself as a passionate advocate for the vulnerable and mentally ill.
Jeff rejects my argument that he abandoned social welfare concerns while Premier. He reminds me of the parlous financial situation that Victoria was in, at the time he was elected. He felt he had to move quickly to turn things around; this inevitably caused pain to some, just as a splinter has to be dealt with quickly but some pain ensues. Jeff denies there was any contradiction in the standard of care he provided when in office, compared to the standard of care he advocates for now. He points that in both positions, he feels the responsibility of being accountable for the welfare of the community.
I must confess, I remain unconvinced but move on. After all, we have limited time as we both have to attend an AMA function later that morning.
Because of his position with Beyond Blue, Jeff has become quite an educated layman about mental health issues, particularly depression. I ask him what his views are about the concerns that are being aired about the increasing prescriptions being written for anti-depressants. Jeff believes that generalisations cannot be made, and that if more people are prompted to seek help from their GP’s and this results in more drugs being prescribed then the system is working. Better trained GP’s will recognise that a wide variety of treatments are helpful, and a better educated public will also seek wider solutions that purely a pill; it is part of Beyond Blue’s mandate to assist in the better education of GP’s and the public.
Jeff points out the enormous impact that the organisation Beyond Blue has been able to make and the personal impact it has had on him. He tells me he has travelled across Australia and spoken to hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Jeff assures me that he has seen the suffering and the pain that has resulted from psychiatric illness. Yet he is on the record as saying he will soon give away his position with BB and move on to another project. How can that be?
“Life is about change”, Jeff says. You do one thing to the best of your ability, and then you move on to another challenge. Staying too long in any one position risks losing effectiveness; indeed, being a good leader involves training a successor.
Finally, I ask Jeff what his advice is for Australia’s future psychiatrists. He assures me that he believes Psychiatry is an honourable profession, and he is alarmed at the “extraordinary” shortage of trained specialists. He points out that is imperative that doctors stay in clinical practice, rather than be shunted into administrative duties. Jeff believes that professionals, as a general rule, should devote 10-20% of their time and energy to assisting those who are without, or who live in the bush, i.e. pro bono work or visiting rural and remote areas.
And so the formal interview comes to an end. By the time of “termination” Jeff is clearly more relaxed and jocular. The whole experience has been memorable for me. Later that morning, I see him speak at an AMA function, and hear many of the same sentiments expressed.
However, there are two aspects to his speech that I find jarring. His repeated emphasis on “the gift of life” strikes me as being quite glib, and potentially very jarring and insensitive to those who are genuinely depressed, despairing and suicidal. It is an odd coda to his professions of understanding of the suffering of the mentally ill that I had heard earlier in the day. Similarly, his conflation of the terms “psychologist” and “psychiatrist” is quite alarming – especially when addressing an audience of medical professionals! Again, it appears to be an odd mistake for someone of his seniority to make.
Was my curiosity satisfied by the interview? Not really. I often felt like I was talking to a well-rehearsed machine with a strict script to follow. I would have loved to have been able to access some true depth – it must be there somewhere! But it was a fascinating insight into how a consummate politician conducts himself which, in itself, makes for a valuable learning experience.