Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Legislation Amendment (Child Disability Assistance) Bill 2007 introduces a new payment, child disability assistance, into social security law. It is an annual tax-free payment of generally $1,000 to recipients of carer allowance for those who care for children under 16 years of age. It is to be funded over the next four years. The first payment will be made in October this year and over the four years it is estimated that the cost will amount to over $560 million. Labor certainly supports this much needed additional payment, which will certainly help those caring for children who have a disability.

In June 2006 the carer allowance was paid to 106,622 carers who were caring for over 125,000 children with disabilities. I think everybody in this House would know that carers of children with a disability are certainly under considerable financial pressure in their efforts to care for their children and to pay for essential supports. Medical expenses can greatly exceed those faced by the vast majority of children, whether it is for early intervention therapies, respite care, appropriate educational placements or physical aids, which can be very expensive. All of these things can place families in situations where the provision for their child is beyond their resources.

Children with disabilities also have very, very diverse needs that can change over time. Young children with a disability can benefit from very early intervention and therapy to maximise their early childhood development and their learning. I am sure we are all in contact with families who would benefit from a break and they need the respite care to give them that break.

As children develop they outgrow aids and equipment, which then need replacing. We can all think of home or vehicle modifications, such as a hoist in the home or aids to help travel in the family car. Many families with a child or children with a disability face these additional expenses as the children grow up.

So this child disability assistance payment will help carers with the purchase of all of these different types of assistance. We understand that it really is going to be able to help families, who can then decide themselves about how best to spend this money. We certainly, as I said, welcome this $1,000 payment because we know that it will help carers who are under considerable financial stress.

We are also aware that this payment forms part of a broader disability support package called the disability assistance package. This was announced in June and we understand that a considerable amount—almost $1 billion of that—will be provided to help older carers and their families. The government has said that it will translate into around 1,750 new supported accommodation places, 800 new respite places to be available by 2012 and additional in-home support and respite to assist older carers continue in their caring role.

At a cost of over $700 million, carers of around 130,000 children will get the $1,000 payment that we are debating here today. We know how helpful that will be. There is over $20 million to enable respite, early intervention and other services for children in their local areas. Most importantly, as part of this package, there is also additional investment in employment services because many people with disabilities can and are able to work and want to be able to work, and if they are provided with assistance to do so then they can have very productive lives in the workforce. So there is $21 million for an extra 500 supported employment places in various business services, $30-odd million to continue targeted support to people with a disability who cannot benefit from supported employment, over $20 million in viability support to help those business services that are in temporary crisis and over $26 million to provide increased funding for other disability services.

I am sure the parliament is aware that disability services have, for some period of time now, been funded through the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement—otherwise known as the CSTDA. This is still being renegotiated. This disability assistance package which was announced in June did include direct Commonwealth funding of disability services and all the other areas that I have just mentioned. The states and territories have requested detail about how the supported accommodation will be provided and who will provide ongoing funding. As I understand it, this information was promised at the end of July but is yet to be received by the states and territories.

Just under half of the disability assistance package was in the form of income support payments to families caring for a child under 16. Of course, we do welcome this additional funding for people with disabilities and the extra money for their carers, but we are concerned that there is still no agreement on the fourth Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement.

Up until Minister Brough announced the additional funding, he had said that he would match the states and territories fifty-fifty for unmet need for services. But then on 4 July, without any notice, the minister withdrew this offer and stated, ‘The offer is no longer available in light of the disability package announced the week prior.’

Families have to juggle both access and eligibility for a range of services including disability programs provided by the states and territories, through the Home and Community Care Program, the education system and Centrelink. What we are concerned about is that the way in which the government has gone about announcing this new disability assistance package may add to further complexity in what is, particularly for parents and carers, an already very, very complex environment.

That said, we do welcome the additional funding but we would like to see the minister continue to negotiate with the states and territories to get an agreed Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement. We think that that will make it less complex for those carrying out their caring responsibilities and those who are delivering services to people with a disability. What we do not want is for people with disabilities or for their carers to be caught up in the blame game that we hear so often unfortunately from the Prime Minister and from Minister Brough.

We think that a renegotiated agreement will in fact not only make it easier for carers and for people with disabilities to find their way around a complex system but also make sure that both the Commonwealth and the states and territories meet the needs of those with a disability and meet the needs of carers as well. We on this side of the House initiated the first Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement back in 1991. It is the case that at that time this agreement resulted in dramatically improved services for people with disabilities and for their families. So Labor continues our commitment to further improve services for people with disabilities. This was one of the reasons that we initiated the recent Senate inquiry into the funding and operation of the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement which reported in February this year. Evidence to that inquiry from people right around the country—people with disabilities and their carers—was certainly consistent. What they constantly drew the attention of the Senate to were the problems with access to services, the inadequacy of support and the reliability and predictability of services. All of these issues were raised time and again, both in the hearings to the Senate inquiry and through various submissions. Unfortunately, many people expressed their frustration and anger when all they saw was governments at the state and Commonwealth level blaming each other when service needs remain unmet.

What we need in this area of disability policy is a whole-of-government response. That means the Commonwealth, the states and the territories working together to get a new Commonwealth State/Territory Disability Agreement to deliver the services and the support that people with a disability and their carers really need and deserve. That is what they need now. People also need to know that it will be delivered in a less complex way and over the longer term. That said, we are very pleased to support the legislation, because we know how needed the additional funding is, particularly for carers of children with a disability.

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