Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payments for Carers) Bill 2018. In doing so, I want to briefly speak about the invaluable role that carers play in my electorate of Macarthur and, indeed, right across our nation and the pressures on them. In my role as the member for Macarthur and throughout my fairly long career as a paediatrician in the local area, I meet with carers every day from my community. They come from all different backgrounds: some caring for elderly partners, some caring for their grandchildren and others caring for their very disabled children with special needs. Each and every one of them deserve our accolades. They have a single characteristic in common, and that's selflessness.

I have longstanding relationships with local families who act as carers for their relatives, often across multiple generations, and it never ceases to amaze me just how unique and giving these people are. They are the kinds of people from my community who I'm immensely proud and privileged to represent and who I'm driven to deliver better outcomes for every day. Our carers play an invaluable role in our society, and we must do more to assist them. Far too often I will be approached in my office by a Macarthur local, often known to me, who's having issues obtaining or accessing their existing carers benefits at Centrelink. Typically, a call from my office will bring resolution. However, people should not be forced into this situation, to have to go to their local member of parliament to obtain a social security benefit that they have every right to.

We as a society owe these people a debt of gratitude. Yet, under this government, people are made to feel as though they cannot access government assistance without resorting to seeing their local politician. Far too many wives, husbands, daughters, sons, foster parents, grandparents and friends have come to me overwhelmed by the system and often distraught, because they are made to feel subhuman when dealing with the Department of Human Services. That is a great Australian shame. That is not a standard that I accept. We are in desperate need of a shift in attitude towards social security in this country.

I apologise for feeling very emotional about this, but this is lived experience for me. These are families that I have come to love and, indeed, they have been very supportive of me. Part of my job as a paediatrician causes me to see children with some of the most severe disabilities one could imagine: children with cerebral palsy, children with chromosomal and genetic conditions, children with intractable epilepsy, children with cancer, children with severe intellectual disability and children with severe congenital malformations such as spina bifida. These children are no less loved by their families than others, and it's very important that we provide improved services such as respite care, early intervention and other supports to show that we as a society will help these families get by.

I have very often been forced into the position of having to apply to support organisations—most recently, for a child with something called congenital lymphedema, for compression garments, which are not covered by Medicare—to help people live their daily lives. I've often been forced to go to other organisations to provide things like respite care, housing et cetera. We shouldn't have to be in that position for these most disadvantaged children and their carers. Life is not all about aspiration and reaping the rewards of that aspiration. Some things happen because of bad luck and by chance. Having a child with a severe disability is part of that. My unwavering belief is that we as a society should be saying to these families, 'We're part of your journey and we'll support you.'

Having a child, for example, with intractable epilepsy imposes enormous stresses and burdens on the family in terms of costs for things like medications. Some children with some of the worst genetic forms of epilepsy may be on five or six different medications. It's very expensive. I recently met a family with a child, Mia, with Dravet syndrome, a very rare form of epilepsy. They actually sold their house so that they could move closer to our local hospital so that when the child was in status epilepticus, which is continuing, uncontrolled seizures, it would take less time to transport them to the emergency department for emergency treatment. So there are enormous costs involved with having a child with a disability like this.

It would be remiss of me if I didn't mention this government's latest attack on Human Services. Many carers attempting to access a benefit for the first time are made to wait while their claim is processed, and this process is taking far too long. If someone is entitled to a benefit, it should be given to them. They shouldn't have to wait weeks or even months to get that benefit. It seems quite apparent to me that the government's decision to cut over 1,200 jobs from Centrelink is only going to exacerbate this issue. Surely this is unacceptable. Local residents should not have their calls continuing to go unanswered. This is not appropriate, yet every Centrelink agency around the country has thousands of calls that go unanswered every week. If there are 1,200 fewer staff at Centrelink to respond to and process claims, of course the quality of service will be reduced.

Labor will be supporting this bill because it does seem that the vast majority of Australian carers will be able to access more support. But there are no guarantees in this, and I for one will hold this government to account. Payments of this nature are not—

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