Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity in parliament this evening to pay tribute to the carers in my community and across Australia and to acknowledge the enormous personal and financial sacrifices they make. The theme for this year’s Carers Week, ‘… because I care’, is a fitting description of the selfless service that carers give every day. Official data from an ABS survey indicates that there are about 2.6 million carers in Australia who provide informal care to a relative or a friend; that nearly half a million of these are primary carers and, not surprisingly, 75 per cent of them are women; that most primary carers are under 65 and potentially workforce participants; and, perhaps more surprisingly, that 60 per cent of carers aged 15 and over have cared for five years or more, one-third have cared for over 10 years and some have been in this position for as long as 30 years. Carers in my community are unsung heroes.

Carers Week each year provides the opportunity for politicians either to be engaged in activities to celebrate carers in their own electorates or, as tonight in parliament, to place on the public record our acknowledgement of the work that carers do. This week has coincided with some positive announcements that have been made by the government to further assist our caring community. As part of the government’s Economic Security Strategy, people on carer payment will receive $1,400 for singles and $2,100 for couples, while carer allowance recipients will get $1,000 for each eligible person being cared for. These increases build on the $822 million package provided in our first Labor budget to support and recognise carers.

As I have said on previous occasions, caring for people with disabilities, chronic conditions, mental illness or frailty is one of the most essential but, regrettably, inadequately recognised and under-rewarded tasks undertaken by many of our fellow citizens. As we all know, the physical and emotional support provided by our carers is priceless. Back in 2005, Access Economics estimated that informal carers provided 1.2 billion hours of care. The replacement value to all levels of government if this care were not provided has been estimated to be in the order of $30.5 billion annually, but providing that care comes at a cost to carers in terms of their wellbeing, quality of life, financial security and opportunity to be in paid work. We all know of tales of carers who have often had to leave work or reduce their hours of workforce participation because of their caring responsibilities. The majority of carers who are of workforce age report great difficulties in balancing their caring responsibilities with workforce participation.

It is not surprising, therefore, that one-third of primary carers have household incomes which place them in the poorest fifth of households in Australia and that, for 55 per cent of primary carers, their main source of income is government support. I was interested to note this week that the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, that very authoritative body, released further research findings which show that Australia’s more than two million female unpaid workers earn much less and are in much poorer health than women without caring responsibilities. For example, they point out that mothers caring for a child with a disability are likely to earn over their lifetime between a quarter and half the income of similar women who are not carers.

In that regard, I was delighted to read that the Prime Minister has acknowledged the difficulties facing carers in contributions to their retirement incomes. He has promised that our government will explore the idea of contributing funds towards their superannuation savings. The NATSEM research found that female carers are likely to have accumulated less than $25,000 in superannuation by the time they reach the age of 65. I want to take this opportunity to commend the announcement made by the Minister for Ageing this week when she announced a $12 million national grants program to improve respite services for carers. Our carers must have ready and affordable access to quality support services such as respite and counselling, and this is an issue that many politicians deal with at the local level. I am sure that in many communities the services provided by the Carelink officers are well accessed and well known to carers who contact our officers. I want to conclude with a statement made by the Prime Minister this week; I think he says it all. He states:

• … we must provide greater financial support and assist carers to build retirement income.
• Second, we must assist carers to participate in the paid workforce.
• And third, we must work harder to help carers themselves stay in good health.

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