Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This evening in the grievance debate I grieve for grandparents who are carers. I grieve for grandparents who are carers because they are in a special category in Australia. I have spoken about this issue in the House before and it is an issue that I want to see dealt with, not given passing reference to by decision makers both at a state and federal level.

To put it in context, there are foster parents, there are grandparents who care for their grandchildren, and there are grandparents who care for their grandchildren without any formal arrangement. Foster parents are a group of people who in this community are held in high regard. They take it upon themselves to take into their house so many children that are in need of care and help, for whatever reason—they have been abandoned and they need somebody and a good home to give them the guidance and love that they deserve.

In a media release by Robyn McSweeney, the WA Minister for Child Protection; Community Services; Seniors; Volunteering, Women’s’ Interest; and Youth on March 2 this year, the minister calls on the community help to increase foster care numbers. In the launch in Joondalup she talked about the need for increased foster parents.

In a media release by the minister Robyn McSweeney, the WA Minister for Child Protection; Community Services; Seniors; Volunteering, Women’s’ Interest; and Youth on March 2 this year, the minister calls on the community help to increase foster care numbers. In the launch in Joondalup she talked about the need for increased foster parents.

“As at January 31 this year, there were 3,529 children in care,” Mrs McSweeney said.

“We have 2,539 registered carer households and, while we are grateful contributions and commitment, the reality is we need more foster carers.”

That is fine, but can I tell you that we have a real crisis in this country, because so many children end up as the responsibility of their grandparents. This happens for a number or reasons. This can happen for a reason such as the parents are killed in a car accident or just go missing, but usually it is through drugs. It is because of drugs that parents abandon their children and hand them over to their parents, the children’s grandparents. The sad part about this is that I have had a number of people in my electorate come to me and talk to me about the state of these children when they receive them. They are dishevelled, they have not been to school, they have nits in their hair to the extent that they are burrowing into their skulls and their skulls are bleeding.

These grandparents, who are wishing to retire and most of them pensioners, are obliged to take on their grandchildren. It is not something they do lightly, because at their age and stage of life, they do not have the resources and they do not have the facilities, the accommodation, to take on the children of their children and to give them the care and the nurturing that they should receive.

I praise foster parents for doing what they do, but foster parents have a walk-up start compared to grandparents. They receive a huge amount of funding in terms of new school uniforms, school excursions, costs associated with care, and a whole range of costs that the state government quite rightly should give them. I raised this issue interest in the government party room during the Howard government era, because it was brought to my attention by one of my constituents in Pinjarra called Margaret Saunders, who had her children delivered to her by her daughter, who was a drug dependant person and whose partner was the same. She was not of pensionable age, and she was required to seek work. The commonwealth on that occasion needed to say to this grandparent, ‘You do not need to seek work because your full time occupation is these children—to bring them up and to care for them.’

It took a fair bit of doing—I had the support of John Howard and I had the support of Joe Hockey at that stage—to see that the Commonwealth, on a case by case basis, looked at the grandparents involved and said, ‘Look, your primary responsibility with the money that is coming into you is such that you shouldn’t be looking for work; you should be taking the primary care of these children.’

I am raising this issue tonight because the same minister, Robyn McSweeney, who I have a great deal of time for—she is a member of the coalition in Western Australia and I have taken grandparents to meet with her—has put out a press release, saying:

Child Protection Minister Robyn McSweeney today announced $1,000 in financial assistance per child to foster grandparents looking after grandchildren, following … assessment plan.

The problem I have with that is that most of the grandparents that end up with grandchildren do not have a formal arrangement from the Department of Child Protection. You would ask: ‘Why?’

Guess what? Quite often these dysfunctional parents—and as I said, many of them drug dependent—will not hand over formal assignment through the courts to the grandparent. Why? Because they want the child support payments and they want family tax benefit and all the things that go with having a child. They want everything that comes with the child except the child. The sad reality is that they will not hand them over. They take them back on the odd occasion to qualify for these entitlements, but the grandparent ends up with the child and has to pay school fees and the ongoing costs of raising them: food, care, health care and everything else that goes with it.

I am disappointed because, as I said, people in my electorate, like Margaret Saunders of Pinjarra, Betty Fairfowl of Park Ridge and others have come to me and said, ‘We can’t cope any longer, because we are not getting any support.’ They are having to sell their houses, if they have a house. They are having to shift into smaller accommodation. This is wrong. This ‘one-off payment’ announced by the minister is not sufficient. Please give them the same status as foster parents. Please make sure that they get the same funding and entitlements as foster parents. It is just not right. What is better: a foster home or the home of a blood relative; a blood relative that has the care and love of the grandchild or a foster home which has a lot of care but not same blood relationship and attachment?

Grandparents are eligible for this ‘establishment payment’. This payment will apply to children placed with their grandparents by the Department of Child Protection from 1 January 2011. The fact is that $1,000 is not sufficient, even for those who qualify. But because they are not assigned by the courts and because there is not a formal relationship, so many people fall through the cracks. Centrelink estimated that in Western Australia there were approximately 2,500 to 3,000 grandparent carers in 2010. WA is 10 per cent of the population. A Current Affair some years ago estimated there were at least 30,000 grandparents around Australia in the same predicament.

There are a whole lot of organisations involved in this. The national grandparents support group is Grandparents Australia. In WA there is Grandcare, which is a subset of Wanslea Family Services; Grandparents Support Groups Referral Service; and Grandpower for Grandkids. Can we show some leadership in this parliament and try, through the COAG process or whatever means we have with the state governments—because it is in the state jurisdiction—to get on with giving grandparents the entitlements that foster parents have to look after the grandchildren that they end up with? Quite often they want to move on with their own lives but because they are their flesh and blood they are willing to take on this huge responsibility of bringing up their grandchildren. I grieve for grandparents like Margaret and Betty and others in my electorate and I ask that we get all the support that we can to help them through this very serious time of raising young children who have come from dysfunctional homes to give them the care and love that they deserve.