Carnell to lead beyondblue

Carnell to lead beyondblue

Former ACT chief minister Kate Carnell will lead national depression initiative beyondblue.

Carnell is already involved in the organisation, which has had a strained relationship with the LGBTI community over the last 12 months. She has served as a board director since 2008 and deputy chair to Jeff Kennett since 2010.

“Ms Carnell will continue as a director of beyondblue because of her position as CEO. She knows the organisation, its staff and partners extremely well, and is clearly an experienced CEO who will work with the Board and staff in continuing beyondblue’s exceptional work throughout the community,” Kennett said in a statement.

“Ms Carnell is therefore an extraordinarily well-qualified person to take over the leadership of beyondblue. She is well connected to our political stakeholders, and has already identified a range of initiatives she would like to add to our programs to assist our Australia-wide community to better understand and address depression, anxiety and mental health issues.”

The organisation has been under fire in recent months for Kennett’s comments around gay marriage and gay parenting.

In September the former Victorian premier used a Melbourne newspaper column to declare heterosexual marriages were better for the mental health of children and used his beyondblue position in an effort to back his claims.

“There is no substitute for parents of both genders,” Kennett wrote. “Happy heterosexual marriages are the best environment for the mental health of children.”

He used the recent For Kids’ Sake report, commissioned by the Australian Christian Lobby and authored by the University of Sydney’s Professor Patrick Parkinson, as further evidence of his claims.

Both Parkinson and then beyondblue CEO Dawn O’Neil refuted Kennett’s claim. The chair then went on Melbourne LGBTI radio station Joy 94.9 to claim his comments were taken out of context. O’Neill resigned from her position within weeks of the organisation distancing itself from Kennett’s comments.

READ: Report not about gay parents

READ: Beyondblue rebuffs Kennet’s claims

In April last year the organisation came under fire for its lack of LGBTI-specific mental health information, particularly youth suicide.

READ: Beyondblue anger grows

Carnell said she was looking forward to the new role.

“I am really excited about the opportunity to lead beyondblue during its next phase of growth,” she said. “Depression and anxiety affect the lives of more than one in five Australians, so the role of beyondblue in increasing the understanding and decreasing the stigma sometimes associated with these conditions continues to be very important.”

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4 responses to “Carnell to lead beyondblue”

  1. What a sordid mess Beyond Blue has become. Any intended good has been soiled by the truly awful ravings of Kennett, telling journalist employing a bisexual trainer is like employing a paedophile. Apart from a cronyism style of governance, that would allow a Deputy Chair of the Board to become the CEO, appointing what I think is the right person for Kennett’s power, and not Beyond Blue, my stomach churns when I see the name Beyond Blue.

    For me, it represents a bunch of fallen pollies trying desperately to recapture fame. The Norma Desmond brigade could be capable of doing a lot of good, but they are too busy damaging Beyond Blue with outburst that I read as getting people to kill or hurt us, and to cause depression. Robert Clark spat out in parliament in 1995, homosexuality is a sick disease, and we molester children more. He went on to say “I believe homosexual practices form a destructive way of life, destructive to the individual and destructive also to other individuals who are brought into that way of life”. Kennett was Premier and sat beside him when he spoke such foul words. Robert Clark is now the Attorney General of Victoria, and recently voted with all of the Liberal Party, to strip us of many workplace protections in the Equal Opportunity Act. They are turning back the clock. I believe most of Beyond Blue is still stuck in that hateful way of thinking about Civil Rights that defines the modern Liberal Party. You cannot separate Beyond Blue from the Liberal Party, the hateful comments of Kennett, and the hate that still defines the Liberal Party, especially in Victoria.

    Recently a gay man was set alight in Victoria. He was another one on the list of gay hate crimes that is rising. I have to wonder were the killers listening to Kennett or Beyond Blue? What was that difference again? I am not with the idea of hating people simply because they are straight, so why would I expect Beyond Blue to argue I should be sacked because of my sexuality?

    Therapeutic Guidelines, and other groups, produce clinical guidelines with expert groups, based on the latest research. You will find these eloquent booklets in almost all GP clinics, and specialist consulting rooms. But Beyond Blue struggles to separate fact from opinion. Even their own researcher said they were “Incredibly neglect of gay youth”. I do not want my taxes paying for tabloid spin on depression, I want our dollars to get to the groups that do not vilify or encourage hate, the groups that make a difference, so I cannot for the life of me see that Beyond Blue is deserving of our money.

    http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/libs-take-dim-view-of-homosexuals/2005/11/26/1132966006762.html

    http://www.theage.com.au/national/beyondblue-incredibly-neglectful-of-gay-youth-20100417-slix.html

    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/kennett-gay-storm/story-e6frf7l6-1111117025363

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronyism

  2. Most of the people on the Beyond Blue board are members of the Liberal party, and Beyond Blue received thousands in funding from John Howards Liberal party.

  3. @Brenty
    Couldn’t agree more.
    It is a mistake to harp on Kennett as a thorn in the side of Beyond Blue.
    He represents a board that has overwhelmingly vote for him no matter how controversial his bigoted comments have been. It is NOT Jeff Kennett alone , it is the enabling bigoted culture within Beyond Blue that has enabled Kennett to keep his position for so long without any public contrition for his appalling and hurtful abusive views toward gay families and the LBGI community generally.