Kerry Rea (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise very proudly to support this particular budget measure, the Social Security and Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (2009 Budget Measures) Bill 2009. I do this because amongst a number of measures that were addressed by the Treasurer in the budget last evening, the support for carers that is contained within this particular piece of legislation is something that we as a parliament and a community should automatically be united behind. Indeed, I doubt that you could possibly find any criticism for supporting the carers in our community.

Before I go into detail, I first of all congratulate the Treasurer on the budget that he presented last evening. We all know that there is a very significant financial crisis within our country and indeed across the globe. We are facing the worst global recession since the Great Depression and these are very challenging times for all of us. For those who have to balance our books and manage expenditure it is particularly difficult. I do not envy the Treasurer his job. On a personal level, I think the budget that he introduced was one that we can all be proud of. In the past, in many political debates in our own party and elsewhere, the Treasurer and I have not always agreed on policy issues so I can say with genuine and heartfelt consideration that I am very proud to support the budget that he introduced. The reason is that it not only deals with the very difficult economic circumstances which we as a globe and as a nation face but it does so with fairness and compassion. It ensures that we address the investment that we need to make. It ensures that we put together a path to recovery that is sustainable and responsible. But it does so not at the expense of those who are most vulnerable and in most need within our community. So to be able to put together a budget that is responsible and that addresses unique economic circumstances in our modern history but does so with fairness and compassion is a testament to the skill of the Treasurer and indeed of the whole cabinet from the Prime Minister down.

No more so do we see evidence of that fairness and compassion than in the introduction of this particular piece of legislation, which provides some very important income security for carers in our community. I do not think we, as individual members of parliament, can stress too much the role carers play. Both the previous speakers have already talked about the invaluable, in fact incalculable, contribution that carers make to our community. We can look at the cold hard economic facts and, I guess, measure up what it would cost all of us as a community—and indeed all of us who are taxpayers—to provide the level of care that our carers provide to those in need. More importantly, I do not think we should acknowledge carers just in terms of the financial savings that they provide us as a community. We should acknowledge them because they do much more as carers than provide basic quality of life assistance. They provide emotional support, they provide encouragement and they provide a community for those they care for, which they otherwise might not have—they might otherwise be living in an institution rather than in the warmth and comfort of a domestic environment. Our carers do an incredible job when it comes to those they care for.

It is also important to acknowledge that it is not easy to be a carer, that it requires an incredible level of determination, patience, fortitude and tireless commitment often without any respite, or very little respite. It is a certain sort of person who is able to be a carer in our community. I think all of us who acknowledge that perhaps our patience and tolerance levels are not quite as good as theirs must also acknowledge how special those people are. I do not think any of us can talk for too long about their important contribution.

This particular piece of legislation supports carers on two levels. Those who receive a carer payment—indeed the 140,000 Australians out there who are full-time carers—will get a pension increase of $32.49 per week for singles and $10.14 per week for couples. This pension increase is not confined to carers. Indeed, it is for all of those in receipt of an old-age pension and a disability pension. Again, this is an initiative that I commend the government and the Treasurer for. On top of that, these carers will also receive a supplement of $600. These recipients are those on a carer payment, those on a wife pension and a carers allowance, those on a Department of Veterans’ Affairs partner service pension and a carers allowance and those receiving a Department of Veterans’ Affairs carer service pension. On top of that, there is a further $600 payment that will be made to those who are in receipt of a carers allowance. All of those people who will receive the carers payment will also receive the extra $600 of as to a carers allowance. Indeed, some further 450,000 Australians will receive this allowance for every person in their care.

What is really important to note about this is not just that all this, at a time of economic uncertainty and crisis, is a very important injection into the cash flow of all of those households but also that this supplement will actually be introduced as a legislated annual supplement, not simply as an ad hoc bonus. I cannot express adequately how significant this change is. It does two things. It provides those people who are most vulnerable and the people who are caring for them with some level of income security without hoping and praying every budget night that they will continue to receive their bonus. At a time like this, when every dollar counts, it is a significant amount of money to put into their household and it is an amount that they can be sure of because it will be enshrined in legislation. Just as importantly, providing that income security is not just about the household’s ability to plan its financial affairs with more certainty. It is also actually about the dignity of that payment. It is about saying to people: ‘This is your income. You aren’t waiting for a handout which may or may not come every budget night.’ It is actually saying to them that this is part of their income, we value them, we value their work and we believe that they deserve this level of economic security. I believe that change alone will create great joy amongst the households that are the beneficiaries of this particular payment.

Why is it important that we introduce these measures in this particular budget? Because in fact it is in tough times, more so than in any other times, that you cannot leave people behind. It just does not make economic sense and none of us advance—when some people continue to prosper and flourish and when some people are in a position, in terms of their income and their employment, to weather the storm ahead—if those who are the weakest and most vulnerable in our community are left way behind. So, unless we actually address their needs and support them through this financial difficulty, we will all be disadvantaged.

It is also a great shame that the sorts of needs of people who are carers and pensioners or those most vulnerable in our community have been ignored for so long. We know, and this has been said many times, that the revenues, resources and productivity that came out of the boom times, which have now gone, were wasted by the previous government. There is no doubt that the windfalls that occurred through the mining boom could well and truly have been invested in much-needed infrastructure, support services and resources throughout our local communities. Unfortunately, they were not. But I think the greatest travesty of the previous government’s approach to this particular issue was its lack of care for the most vulnerable, given the fact that pensioners, carers or people on a disability support pension were completely ignored in the boom times. I think it is a shame and certainly an indictment of its period of government that those who were most in need were left alone and left behind when times were good. Good heavens, what would be happening to those people now? It is incredible to think that many families, often not even means tested regardless of their income, actually received more benefits from the previous government than did pensioners and carers and those on a disability support pension. It is incomprehensible to think that those people who could well and truly support their own families were provided with support at the expense of those who were caring in very difficult circumstances.

So once again I cannot understate how important this legislation is and what an incredibly good budget measure it is. It is wonderful for carers and it is wonderful for those in their care, therefore it is significant for all of us as a community. But do not take my word for it. A media release put out by the Chief Executive Officer of Carers in Australia, Joan Hughes, has already said:

… the $600 per year supplement for those receiving carer payment and the $600 per year in carer allowances for eligible recipients was very welcome because its status was assured in future budgets. Planning for the future will be a little easier now. They know they will get this supplement each year.

I think that is a ringing endorsement by the CEO of Carers Australia, who clearly acknowledges not just the significance of the increase but the significance of that being enshrined in legislation. It also goes hand in glove with other reforms that this government has already introduced when it comes in particular to the carers of children with a disability. Last week the minister introduced changes to the carer payment for a child which actually broaden the definition of a child with a disability, thus enabling more families to receive the carer payment. It is actually a much more realistic assessment of the needs of children with a disability and an acknowledgement of the struggle that many families have in catering for the needs of the particular child. The changes broaden the assessment so that you do not purely have a clinical or diagnostic assessment; you actually look at a whole range of things when it comes to the care of that child, not just their specific condition but their age, their medical requirements and a whole range of different categories that will enable a broader assessment and therefore will enable many more families to be eligible. Indeed, some 19,000 more families will be able to receive that carer payment.

I have three special schools in my electorate of Bonner: the Mount Gravatt Special School at Mount Gravatt East, the Mount Gravatt West Special School and the Darling Point Special School. I regularly visit them and talk to teachers and the parents and families of children attending those schools. I know that there are many parents out there struggling with the demands of raising a child with a disability while juggling the needs and demands of other children, and they are doing it with very little income support. So I am very pleased that, in conjunction with the significant reforms announced last week, the government has made a genuine commitment to greater income support and better certainty for those on carer payments.

We all know that this budget is not going to be unanimously supported and endorsed with the accolades that I think it deserves. We know that there will be criticism, and we are already hearing criticism about the level of deficit. I believe that these criticisms are unwarranted. We should be prepared to look at a temporary deficit if it is needed to support the people covered by this legislation, their families and their carers.

What if we did nothing? What would happen to our economy if we did nothing with this budget and let the global recession rip, as the Prime Minister puts it? We know that the recession is burning a hole in budgets across the world—it is not just our budget; it is happening across the globe. No matter what government was in power, regardless of how good it thought it was, it would inevitably be looking at a deficit. But I guess the difference is whether you address the fact that you are dealing with a recession that is beyond your control and bigger than anything we have seen our lifetimes. Should the government play an active role in dealing with the situation by not only addressing the underlying financial problems but making sure that those most vulnerable and in need in our community will not be completely left behind? Should we allow unemployment to increase and business activity to decline? Can you imagine what would happen to the government’s books if that occurred? What would happen to our revenue? What would happen to the size of the deficit if we had higher unemployment and a decline in business activity? It is too frightening to contemplate. On the other hand, should we invest in the economy? Should we acknowledge that it is worthwhile, indeed necessary, to have a temporary deficit in order to support employment and business activity by building the infrastructure that we need and increasing the assets of our community, thereby providing jobs not just now but into the future?

This may be a naive assessment, but it occurred to me that it is effectively a question of either sitting on your haunches and paying dead rent as debt or taking the initiative by accepting a responsible level of debt, taking out a mortgage and ending up with a valuable asset once you have paid it off. That is the fundamental choice—it is, I think, the fundamental difference between us and the opposition. We actually believe in taking action, being proactive, building up our skills and assets base and on the way supporting those who are most vulnerable rather than throwing our hands in the air, saying it is all too hard and possibly ending up in a worse debt position than we otherwise would.

In conclusion, I do not think the criticisms are valid. I commend the Treasurer for the budget he brought down. If there is any one particular program in this budget that indicates the compassion of the Labor government and its support for investing in our people, it is contained in this bill, which provides support for carers in our community.

Debate interrupted.

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