Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. How is the government providing extra support to people with a disability and their carers through the government’s Economic Security Strategy and have there been any responses to this strategy?

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canberra for her question. As all members of the House know, the member for Canberra does an outstanding job for carers and, I must say, people with a disability not only in her own electorate but in many parts of the country. Carers and people with a disability got some great news from the government this week—some 470,000 people on carers allowance will get $1,000; 130,000 people on the carer payment and more than 700,000 people on the disability support pension will receive $1,400 if they are single people, and couples will receive $2,100. This is great news for all of those people with a disability or people who are carers. This is a down payment on our long-term pension reform and is part of our economic security package. We know that we need to provide much needed support to those people who are having trouble making ends meet. We also want to sustain economic growth.

We have seen some very supportive comments from carer organisations and from organisations representing people with disabilities. The Chief Executive Officer of Carers Australia, Joan Hughes, said earlier in the week:

“This is an important victory for all those left out of previous proposals,” … “The announcement will provide desperately needed relief for Australia’s hardest-working families.”

Just recently I was in Adelaide, where I met one of those hardworking families—in fact a woman who typifies the types of people who will benefit from the government’s strategy. Dianne is a grandmother. She is a carer for 15-year-old Nick. She is living on the disability support pension and, of course, struggling to pay her bills. I spoke with Dianne on Tuesday to tell her the good news. Of course she already knew that this was the first time that she and more than 700,000 other people on the disability support pension would get a lump sum payment. In the past, under the previous government, these people, who have been finding it very difficult, were completely ignored. Dianne, I am pleased to say, will also receive additional family and carer payments for her and for Nick. Of course that will make the Christmas coming that much easier, both for her and for Nick.

I was also asked about other comments that have been made. Earlier this week we saw comments from the Leader of the Opposition, who said in response to the Prime Minister’s announcement of these very significant improvements for pensioners and for carers:

… we are not going to argue about the composition of the package or quibble about it.

That is what he said on Tuesday. But last night the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, on Lateline, put an end to any bipartisan support. Here is what she had to say:

… had we been in Government we may well have done things differently …

She went on to say:

… we may well have looked at a different composition …

We know what this means, because we know in their recent proposals they ignored the needs of carers, they ignored the needs of people on a disability support pension and they ignored the two million families who are going to be beneficiaries of the package that the government has announced. So if the Deputy Leader of the Opposition had had her way, 700,000 people who are dependent on the disability support pension would have missed out. They would have missed out, according to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Half a million carers would have missed out under the propositions of those opposite.

And it seems that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is not alone. I know members on this side will not be surprised to hear that there are some strange remarks coming from the Leader of the National Party in the Senate, Senator Joyce. He has called giving support to four million pensioners and two million families ‘a dangerous piece of policy’. I have yet to meet a pensioner or a carer who would think that it is dangerous to give them a little bit of extra help just before Christmas. The Leader of the Opposition wants to walk both sides of the street. On Tuesday he said that he wanted to support it without any quibble. By today we have the Deputy Leader of the Opposition saying the exact opposite. By contrast, the government intends to give six million Australians—families, pensioners and carers—the support that they need.