Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is not relevant, because you are making a presumption about me that is inaccurate; and you do not want to go down that track because it would be very unfair. Let me also tell you about my experience as a member of the IR task force when we were in opposition. If you want to talk about caring about carers, let’s talk about the woman who appeared before the IR task force who was a secretary in a medical practice. She had always worked 15 hours a week. Why did she work only 15 hours a week? She was a grandmother of a profoundly disabled child and she could only do those hours because she relieved her daughter one day a week to give her daughter some respite from looking after her child. What happened to her? She was offered an AWA. She was offered an AWA that would not give her a guarantee of hours. She had to be available at any time during the five days of the working week to do the 15 hours. So she could no longer give her daughter a guarantee that she could provide her with respite for one day a week. Let’s talk about the reality of understanding the lives of carers and their families and what sort of certainty they need in their lives in order to be able to meet their commitments. The Work Choices legislation—in this woman’s very direct, personal experience—ripped that from underneath her. Because she would not sign that AWA—because she would not say to her daughter, ‘I can’t help you out’—she ended up losing her job. So do not lecture us on the understanding of the dilemmas facing carers and their families in our communities. The reality is: this is simply a desperate attempt by the opposition to drag the last political gasp out of this so that they have something to talk about in this House. The reality for carers is that they have been given a commitment by the Prime Minister that they will not be $1 worse off. At the end of the day, an ongoing, guaranteed income is going to be far more important to carers and families than the one-off payments. (Time expired)

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