11-March-2011
Portfolio Media Releases
Click here to listen to the interview
Topics: Mental health, Gillard and Rudd at odds over Libyan no-fly zone.
E&OE
JON FAINE
Andrew Robb is a Liberal Party frontbencher, Shadow Minister for Finance and has also very publicly declared his battles with mental illness and depression in the past as well.
Andrew Robb, good morning.
ANDREW ROBB
Good morning Jon.
JON FAINE
We do want to talk to you about politics but first of all the whole issue of publicly going through what you went through and now what Brendan Fevola and so many others are going through.
ANDREW ROBB
Yes, in my case, I can’t really speak for others, in my case I know that the condition I had that affected me particularly in the mornings for most of my life was what I found to be depression in the end.
But I never wanted to admit it. The stigma that was there in spadefuls is still there to be honest, but is changing I think. The stigma attached made me and I suspect many others reluctant to disclose even to your closest friends.
There is a sense that if you’ve got some sort of mental illness or depression that it’s a sign of a character weakness and it means that you are very reluctant to even admit it to yourself and it took along time, until two years ago for that matter, to confront it I think and acknowledge it yourself and not necessarily to the world but certainly to those around you, those you love, your friends and even those you work with.
But the second thing is you have to have some personal resolve to fix it. Professionals can help you enormously but it is a thing which requires a lot of patience and trial and error.
JON FAINE
In your case, was it better once people knew publicly what you were going through?
ANDREW ROBB
Well, I felt because I was in public life and I got to a point where I sought professional advice and in fact I thought then to go under the radar. I tried to get to test different treatment and the side effects of some of these medications until you find the right one, the side effects can be more debilitating than the underlying condition and that was the case for me.
I just found it extraordinarily difficult to try and keep up the facade while trying different treatments. So I got to the point where I thought I need some space and I need to step back a little bit and I didn’t want to go telling porkies or make up other reasons and I thought about it long and hard and thought what the heck, I don’t care, I feel like I can now get on top of it.
I’ve had professional advice, they say I’ve got every chance of being better than I’ve even been in my life which has turned out to be the case and I satisfied myself and didn’t care what others thought.
So I would explain publicly what I was doing so I could step back. Now a lot of people don’t have to tell the world, but you’ve got to tell a few others around you so they can help you.
JON FAINE
And if you are an emotionally vulnerable and dare I suggest perhaps an emotionally immature 29-30 year old, or someone who has been thrown into the spot light through your prowess of football, I suspect it’s even harder.
ANDREW ROBB
Even harder, because again it is a sign and has been seen as a sign of character weakness.
So if you’ve got a young fellow who’s striding the world as an athlete and getting all of that homage to admit they’ve got some mental illness or depression, I think would make them feel they’re not as strong as everyone perceives and it would be a great threat to their sense of self worth and all the rest of it. So it makes it doubly hard often for those sorts of people.
JON FAINE:
Let’s move on, but I do have huge reservations about publicity and the role of the media, but moving on, our time is not unlimited. Andrew Robb, Julia Gillard is in the US saying one thing about Libya and fly-over bans and zones, Kevin Rudd on the other hand is zipping around the Middle East saying another. Does it matter?
ANDREW ROBB:
It matters enormously. It’s an extraordinary situation. It’s like we have two prime ministers wandering around the world independently making announcements on the same issue.
JON FAINE:
They are not that far apart from each other. Kevin Rudd is a little more impatient about doing something. Julia Gillard is saying well we just have to do what we can. He’s saying no, we must do this now.
ANDREW ROBB:
I’ve followed it fairly closely because I had foreign affairs for 12 months and I’m very keenly interested in it. Kevin has been very actively seeking a no fly option and he has been, as he has put it, trying to be instrumental in bringing that about, whereas Julia Gillard one: had no position for some time and has now adopted a view that the UN should look at all sorts of options, including that option.
I understand that the Americans rang Canberra yesterday to try and establish just what is Australia’s position and what resources we would put behind a no-fly operation if that was the decision.
That is an extraordinary thing. I mean our own prime minister is in the United States at the moment, they ring Canberra to find out an answer and can’t get it. It’s just an unworkable situation.
Stephen Smith once said there should never be a crack of light between the PM and foreign minister, well there’s a chasm at the moment. And she admitted herself last night that they haven’t even spoken. This is the number one diplomatic issue in the world at the moment. The whole issue of oil security and so much else, Middle East security all of that is at stake and we’ve got Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard not even talking to one another, it just beggars belief.
JON FAINE:
Thank you for your time this morning, Andrew Robb, Shadow Finance Minister, talking about a number of issue that I will take up with you on talk back.