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Last month I was in Canberra for a landmark day in the campaign for National Mental Health Reform in Australia. I was in the Australian capital for the Budget Lockup, an event at which members of the media and other stakeholder groups surrender their liberty and mobile phones for four hours in exchange for a preview of the nation's budget. Some of the happier expressions to be seen at this year's Lockup belonged to representatives of the mental health sector. A central theme of Budget 2011 was a major focus on mental health reform, with an injection of $1.5b of new Government money, complemented by reconfirming or reallocating $700m of pre-existing commitments, as part of a total investment of $2.2b over five years in a new National Mental Health Reform initiative. more »