Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to bring to the attention of the House that it is National Carers Week. Most of us as members are aware of this and we are wearing little icons to suggest that we need to understand and think about carers. Carers Week is a time to reflect on the importance of carers. Carers play a vital role in the community and often make personal and financial sacrifices.

It is very fitting that I have the opportunity to speak briefly today about carers as part of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth that is currently inquiring into carers and their role in the community. I think it will be good for us as a government and certainly for all of us as members to understand much more about the situations that carers find themselves in every day and the long-term caring responsibilities that people have. Recognising this through this inquiry will, I think, also allow us to make better decisions on legislation.

I would like to give a bit of background about carers and some of the things that they have do. We understand ‘carers’ very broadly as people who are caring for other people, whether because of disabilities, age and infirmity or a whole range of situations. There are parents caring for children and children who are taking on care responsibilities for parents. National Carers Week is dedicated to recognising their work.

Early last week the government announced immediate financial relief for carer payment and allowance recipients, which is certainly going to go a long way towards fixing or sorting out some of the interim problems that people are experiencing. In Queensland there will be over 106,000 recipients of these payments. In my own electorate of Forde, over 5,000 carers will be in receipt of such a payment.

I want to quickly touch on a particular group of carers, and that is the young people who are caring for parents and other older Australians. Around 350,000 young people provide care to another person. More than 20,000 of them are primary caregivers. More than 170,000 young carers are under the age of 18, and the average age of that group is 12 to 13, so it is quite a serious problem for young people who are in that situation. They have to juggle their study, work and caring responsibilities. Compared with their peers, young carers have a lot more on their mind. The government has provided $27 million to help boost respite for Australia’s young carers and for carers of young people with severe or profound disability. Part of this will go towards helping them complete their secondary studies.

I want to talk very briefly about constituents in my electorate—those who have come to my attention who do it really, really tough. In particular, I want to mention Graham Popple. Since before I was a member, he has spoken to me on many occasions about his particular caring arrangements with his family and his wife. He would certainly welcome this payment but he has also welcomed the Commonwealth carer respite centres that are now supporting carers.

In closing, I would also like to mention my own sister and our family situation. Kim Raguse is a family carer. She does it at great expense, privately and personally. I would like to commend everyone who is a carer.