Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I first thank the member for Gilmore for bringing this motion to the House today and say that her advocacy for carers, the disabled, the aged and the chronically ill has been consistent, strident and heartfelt since she was first elected to this House. I also acknowledge the staunch advocacy that has come from the member for Canberra since her election. I am pleased to support this motion and have the chance to speak to it.

How shameful it is that, despite being a wealthy nation and blessed beyond belief, we continue to treat those with a disability like second-class citizens. As a minister in the first Howard government with the responsibility for the disability sector, I have to say I was proud that for the first time a Prime Minister took serious notice of carers and, indeed, during that term of office funding for carers grew by 440 per cent. They had previously not been recognised at all. They had trouble, even as an advocacy group, making their voices heard in this place.

I was also in awe and many times inspired by those with a disability, by their determination and their stoicism, and by the dedication of the few who devote themselves to caring for people with a disability. People with a disability come from all walks of life and, within our community, the range of disability varies both in type and in terms of the impact on people’s lives. As the member for Gilmore has said, the challenges for these people remain significant and it will take genuine bipartisan support for us to be able to meet those challenges in any meaningful way.

Like my colleagues, I have encountered parents of children with profound disability whose lives are inexorably changed and who take on the caring role with love, with determination to minimise the impact on the quality of life of their children and with cheerful dispositions but, on a practical, day-to-day basis, carry on that caring role 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year. Over these past few days since the debacle over the threats to do away with the one-off payment for carers—which we are reassured will continue now—one mother wrote to me saying that she and her husband had spent three years trying to get an electric wheelchair for a severely disabled daughter and had to take desperate steps to get noticed before support was forthcoming. This really and truly is a shameful situation and again highlights—and it has been highlighted by the comments both my colleagues have made—the need for there to be greater coordination between the state, territory and Commonwealth governments and less ticking of boxes and more action on the ground.

Ageing parents who continue to care for grown sons and daughters long after their physical, if not mental, health has been severely strained, live day to day with the stress of worrying about the future of their children after they, the ageing parents, pass away. One of the worst cases that I ever had to intervene in was an octogenarian whose adult son moved into the hospital with his mother when she fell ill. He was in his 50s. Sadly, when she passed away he continued to live in the hospital ward until I was contacted by a member of the community and, with the help of the local shire president, we made arrangements for his admittance into an aged-care facility. I must say it was long before he really needed that level of care, but that was the only place that could be found for him to go to—such a disgrace.

As minister, I frequently met youngish couples who had both given up jobs in the paid workforce to take care of ageing parents so they did not have to be admitted into aged-care facilities. With much reduced incomes and increasing costs, they struggled to balance the budget. They had given up work in the paid workforce, which had implications beyond budgeting for the many additional costs and medications of caring for ageing parents; it meant sacrificing superannuation.

I fully concur with the sentiments expressed in this motion and I give the call for genuine bipartisan support for a comprehensive approach to meeting the needs of  those with a disability and their carers. They have my full and totally unqualified support.

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