Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President Barnett, I seek leave to return to item 13(a) on the Notice Paper.

Leave granted.

I wish to take note of the letter to the President of the Senate from the Northern Territory Minister for Family and Community services on the issue of foster care. I note that the minister indicates that the Northern Territory is improving payments for foster carers and offering better training and support for carers. I also note that the minister anticipates future opportunities for the Northern Territory government and other jurisdictions to work with the federal government to further advance the interests of foster carers.

I sincerely hope that the federal government will pursue this opportunity, with the Northern Territory government and the other state and territory governments, to tackle this extremely important issue in a spirit of cooperation. I hope that, in doing so, the federal government will take time to reflect on and make good the promises it made to foster carers when we were discussing the Welfare to Work legislation in this place. Senators will remember that the government was very clear in committing to protecting foster carers from being unfairly impacted upon by the provisions of the Welfare to Work legislation and extending to them the same rights of protection extended to other carers. I am concerned, therefore, that the recent comments by the Australian Foster Care Association indicate that the government has so far failed to understand the special needs and circumstances of foster carers and that, as a result, they are being unfairly impacted upon by Welfare to Work and unfairly treated by Centrelink.

The Australian Foster Care Association stated very recently that it had an understanding with the government, before the Welfare to Work laws were introduced, that registered carers would not be forced to seek employment during periods when children were not in their care. This presents a big problem. Because of the very nature of foster care, particularly for carers who provide respite or are called on to provide care for kids in crisis, it creates very difficult circumstances if they are required to look for work during periods when children are not actually in their care. In an interview with the Australian, the president of the Australian Foster Care Association, Ken Abery, said:

What we are saying is that with a carer or respite carer there could be a day, a couple of days, a couple of weeks or even a month when you don’t have a child in your care, and Centrelink are saying that in that period of time you must go and seek work, which is really very unreasonable because our home is open to these kids 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year.

Let us look at this situation. Foster carers are on standby 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Caring for kids in crisis is their No. 1 priority; they say it is their calling. They are likely to miss work or interviews if they have had to drop everything to care for kids in crisis, and they could be breached. However, under these circumstances they are expected to find very short-term work. Within the next week, they may not be able to turn up because they have kids in their care. They are expected to be looking for work in the gaps between having children in their care. To my mind this is clearly ludicrous, particularly as, if they have to drop everything to look after kids in crisis who are suddenly put into their care, they will not be able to turn up to work and, again, could potentially be breached. The point is that they are deeply worried about this and it could stop foster carers from continuing to be foster carers.

I would also like to point out that there is already a crisis in the number of foster carers available. The president of the Australian Foster Care Association told the Australian that the demand would force many carers to leave the sector, particularly the estimated 4,500 single parents who depended on allowances while caring for children without financial support from another family member. The association has pointed out the significant drop in the number of carers who are available to care for kids in crisis. Speaking to the ABC, the president of the Foster Care Association said:

We are already down from what was four years ago 14,000 carers, we’re now we are down to about 8,000 carers.

It makes me very depressed to hear about that drop in numbers. Of course, they are very concerned that numbers will drop even further if we do not resolve this Welfare to Work situation. I have to ask what is the greater priority in our society: reducing the number on Centrelink’s books or providing safe and adequate protection and care for kids in crisis who need a better chance in life? I have told this place on many occasions about the significant increase in the number of children in out-of-home care. The number has risen by 70 per cent from nearly 14,000 in 1996 to nearly 24,000 in 2005. Of these children, four per cent are in residential care, 54 per cent are in foster care and 40 per cent are in kinship care. There are many children in out-of-home care and, unfortunately, the number is growing.

The government promised it would look after foster carers, and the foster carers took that promise seriously. While the government has already addressed some of these issues through the regulations in Welfare to Work, it has not addressed the very key provision of requiring foster carers to look for work in the gaps between looking after children. Clearly, it is not feasible to do this; it is not working for foster carers. I urge the government to have dialogue with the Foster Care Association, and with the states and territories that deal with foster carers, to find a way forward through this mess, because it is going to damage the children of our community, whom everyone in this place agrees should be our No. 1 priority. I think this provision of Welfare to Work has had very clear and unintended consequences. The government, as I said, made it plain that it would look after foster carers. It also made a commitment in this place that it would deal, through regulation, with the issue of family carers. I urge the government to again look at the impact of its legislation on the foster carers of this country. I urge the government to uphold its promise to look after foster carers at the same level as primary carers and to stop this nonsense.

Question agreed to.