Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was delighted this morning to attend, with members from both sides of the chamber, the launch here in Parliament House of National Carers Week. There are some 2.7 million unpaid carers in Australia, which means about one in every eight Australians serve as an unpaid carer for people they love and support. Of that 2.7 million, some 272,000 are younger than 25 years of age. Indeed, 856,000 carers are the primary carers—that is, they are the person who provides the most support to the person with a disability or who is otherwise in need of care—and we know from Bureau of Statistics data that the average age of primary carers is 55 years. So these are important people who do a wonderful job in our community, whose support for their loved ones, for those around them, for family members and others, is an invaluable support in building the community, in maintaining families, in ensuring that individuals get the support and care they need to live their lives. We in this place owe a great deal of gratitude to them. We encourage them, we praise them and we continue to support them.

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