Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

As a member of this parliament, it is a privilege to meet Australians from all walks of life, and I am sure that we would all agree that the courage that we see in the faces and in the lives of carers is no exception. It is often said in this place that whatever we do, it will never be enough. In the case of carers, that will always be true. Sometimes we use that phrase thinking that those groups that we seek to support will never be satisfied; but, in the case of carers, the need for satisfaction is so great that I hope at some stage our parliament will be able to meet that need. Measures like those contained in the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) Bill 2009 go down the path towards meeting it. I think that any time we talk about these measures, or any measures for carers, it is important to recognise the plight of carers and the fact that the measures go only a very small way towards relieving their burden. It is a burden that they bear out of love. Some will sometimes unkindly say that governments will unfairly take advantage of that affection. But the truth is that these carers who care for those they love will always do it, and we should seek to relieve their burden in any way we can. We should never seek to take advantage of the affection and love that they have for those whom they care for and, in doing so, we should never seek to diminish it.

This bill represents the government’s response to the recommendations of the carer payment task force. I am pleased to say that this task force was set up under the previous government, in March 2007, to conduct an investigation into eligibility criteria for the carer payment (child). The report of the task force was given to the Rudd government on 30 November 2007. The carer payment provides income support to people who are unable to support themselves through employment, due to the demands of their carer responsibilities—which is a very common circumstance for people in these situations. In addition to the carer payment, there is also the carer allowance, which is an income supplement that is available to people who provide daily care to an adult or a child who has a physical, intellectual or psychiatric disability which is permanent and is likely to affect the person for an extended period.

It should be recognised that the carer payment and the carer allowance are not intended to compensate carers for providing care. Nor are they designed to cover the costs of caring for someone with a disability. If we suggested they did, I think that would be an insult to those who seek to provide that care. It is, however—and it is acknowledged by carers—an important acknowledgement of the sacrifice they make and the care that they provide.

Currently the eligibility criteria for the carer payment (child) requires demonstrating that the child requires continuous care for six months or more because of a disability or medical condition, and the care receiver must meet the legislated definition of ‘profoundly disabled child’. This determination is normally made by a medical practitioner who must certify the disability and the level of care required by the child.

A carer may also be eligible to receive the carer payment if they provide care to two or more children with severe disabilities whose combined care needs are equivalent to those of a profoundly disabled child. The task force received many submissions, which does not surprise me, having been a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth which has recently been involved in an inquiry into carers. There were more than 4,000 submissions received, many of which came from individual carers. More than 20 organisations made submissions to the task force, and a major issue that was raised was the inflexible eligibility criteria that unfairly denied financial assistance to a number of carers because certain criteria were not met. For a considerable period of time, the carer payment (child) eligibility criteria was regarded as being too restrictive, and the task force report found that in 2005-06 only 12 per cent of applications for the payment were successful. Eighty-seven per cent of applications for the payment were rejected because they did not meet the stringent criteria.

Let us pause and reflect on those 87 per cent who were told they were not eligible. For them a lot of it would not have been about the money. The money would have been gratefully received—and that was one reason why they applied—but for 87 per cent we considered their cases not worthy of acknowledgement or support. Many cases will fall into that category even with this legislation. I think we should think of these rejections not as simply a cross marked on a form but rather as sending a message to someone who is involved 24/7 in living this experience—whether that is in direct caring responsibilities or in otherwise carrying the burden of that care throughout their normal day. It is an emotional message, not just an administrative message, that is sent. I would encourage those who serve in the front line of our Public Service to continue to be very sensitive in the way that they deal with these matters. This is not just about saying no on a form; it is in many cases a form of acknowledgement of the circumstances these carers face every day.

Many carers were denied access to the carer payment even though their caring responsibilities were similar to those of carers who did qualify for the payment. In the opinion of the task force the current eligibility criteria were too restrictive and as a consequence the payment was not effective in achieving its intended purpose. The task force was requested to determine the most appropriate mechanism for accessing the care requirements of children aged 16 years and under with severe illness and/or disability. At no point did the current assessment system identify the actual level of care required by the child. The task force took the view that a new approach to the assessment of claims for the carer payment (child) was urgently needed and should be based on an assessment of the actual care needs of the child.

The task force recommended changes to the current eligibility criteria to recognise the level of care required by and provided to children with severe disability or medical condition. In 2003 a bulletin published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that there were an estimated 317,900 children with a disability aged under 15 years. That represented about 8.3 per cent of all children under 15 years. Within that group 220,300 children or 5.7 per cent had a core activity limitation. Of that group about 165,300 children or 4.3 per cent had a severe or profound core activity limitation. Figures of that order suggest and demonstrate the all-pervasive presence of this situation in our community. We all either directly or through our relationships and friendships know and are touched by people in this situation.

As a parent, I know that those of us who are blessed with children who do not suffer from these conditions and are not in this situation read those statistics can only thank God. This highlights the need for us to have profound compassion for those who do deal with this situation. We all know of the love that comes when your child is born. I can only imagine the extra love that comes to a parent of a child with a disability. We see it demonstrated. The greatest thing about love is when you see it demonstrated in these acts of care. These parents are blessed in their ability to show what I would call superhuman forms of love to their children.

In 2003 the most prevalent disabilities among children were intellectual and learning disabilities. There were around 166,000. There were 162,000 children with physical disabilities, around 130,000 children with sensory or speech disabilities and around 81,000 children with psychiatric disabilities. Much of the recent data available in relation to disabilities and carers comes from the ABS publication Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings, 2003. It found that in 2003 there were 2.5 million carers in Australia, of which 475,000 were primary carers. The report also stated that 57,800 people were classed as the primary carers of people with disabilities—that is, 12 per cent of Australia’s carers were the carers of children. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare said that most carers of children with a severe or profound disability were the mothers of these children. As of June 2007 there were 3,570 recipients of the carer payment. This figure represents just 3.1 per cent of all recipients of the carer payment (adult) and (child). In the same year there were 109,100 recipients of the carer allowance (child), which accounted for 28 per cent of all recipients of the carers allowance. Some 91 per cent of recipients of the carer payment (child) also received the carer allowance (child).

The bill currently before the House proposes to provide a new, fairer set of criteria to be applied to qualify for the carer payment. We should all be very pleased to support a bill that does this. It is proposed that a further 19,000 carers—19,000 families are affected—will become eligible for the payment after the changes are introduced on 1 July this year. The proposed assessment process for the carer payment will be known as the disability care load assessment (child). Section 38E of the amended act will provide that the disability care load assessment (child) will be contained within a legislative instrument to be made by the secretary of the department. The purpose of this instrument will be to devise a test for assessing the functionality, behaviour and special care needs of a person aged under 16. That includes an assessment that must be completed by a treating health professional. It must provide a method for rating the care needs of the child and provide a method for giving a qualifying rating to the carer who is caring for the child that takes into account the care provided for the child by the carer and the assessment completed by the treating health professional.

Other changes include expanding the circumstances under which the carer payment is payable to include the short-term or episodic care of children. In this instance, short-term care includes care that is provided to a child following a one-off incident, such as an accident, when the care is required for a period ranging between three and six months. More relaxed qualification criteria are proposed in relation to children who have a terminal condition. Unlike the current situation, in which a medical practitioner must certify that a child has a terminal condition and will not live for substantially longer than 12 months, the proposed changes take a less intrusive approach. That is welcome. A medical practitioner must still certify that the child has a terminal condition. Payment to the carer will be based on the average life expectancy of children with the same or a similar condition.

This bill also provides reforms that will address circumstances in which a carer shares the caring responsibility for a child with a disability. It will apply to a child who normally spends some time with one parent and some time with another parent under a registered parenting plan or parenting order. A second disabled child requiring care from the carer will mean that the carer continues to receive the carer payment while the first child is with the other parent.

Other important aspects of this bill are the changes that will streamline the transition between carer payments made in respect of a child with a disability to payments in respect of an adult with a disability. The new section 197K2 of the legislation will provide an existing recipient of the carer payment (child) with a period not exceeding three months in which to make the arrangements for the care receiver to undergo an assessment and a rating under the adult disability assessment tool. This will make the transition between two carer payments less stressful and less complex, which I believe is also welcome.

This is a bill which enjoys the support of the coalition. It is one of those matters which I believe unites both sides of the parliament in our appreciation as parliamentarians of the plight of and the role played by carers. The price of their work, if we had to replace it, would be a bill which we could never pay. We know that it will never come to that. But let us not presume upon that. Let us continue to make efforts to improve the plight of carers. The recent Who cares? report released by the House of Representatives committee contains some excellent recommendations, which I hope will receive very favourable treatment from the government. I have great pleasure in supporting the bill.

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