In March 2021, when the final report from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System was released, then-premier Daniel Andrews made the stakes involved in the commission’s work and the government’s response to it clear.

Committing the government to implementation of all 65 recommendations in the report – what he called “the biggest social reform in a generation” – he concluded that as things stood, “we are failing. And it is costing lives.”

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan.Credit: Darrian Traynor

More than three years on, and with the premiership having passed to Jacinta Allan, there are worrying signs that the eight regional mental health boards that were supposed to be rolled out across the state by the end of 2023 are now to be shelved altogether.

Reference to the boards, which aimed to ensure greater community control of services, has been removed from the Department of Health’s website, and key figures in the sector complain of a vacuum in communications about the next steps in what was supposed to be a years-long process to improve provision.

It would not be the first time that the Allan government opted to turn away from implementing advice it has sought. Its April decision to walk away from plans for a safe injecting room in the CBD flew in........

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