One of the areas where the Coalition had outflanked Labor was on mental health.

Mark Butler was tasked with addressing that and today Labor is announcing a $1 billion package mental health spend, with more Medicare mental health centres and additional specialist services for young patients. Butler announced a mental health service in Ryde yesterday as a bit of a teaser to the whole package.

The Coalition had promised $400m for youth mental health and increasing the number of Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions from 10 to 20.

Labor is promising $225m to upgrade or build new Medicare mental health centres (which don’t offer on-going care, but can help people into the system to find longer care and deal with emergencies), $200m for Headspace and $500m for 20 specialist youth mental health centres.