Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week is Carers Week, and it is time to recognise the vital role our carers play in our community and to acknowledge the enormous personal and financial sacrifices carers make. Carers provide unpaid care to support family members and friends who have disabilities, mental illnesses, chronic conditions and terminal illnesses and who are frail. In fact, more than one in eight Australians provide care of this kind. Carers Week was established to promote and raise awareness of the valuable role that carers play in our society. It also provides the opportunity for carers to come together, support one another and share ideas and information. Carers Week has continued to grow each year, which is a reflection of the increased recognition of the role that carers play throughout our community. Carers are the unsung heroes, and the government recognises and values their incredible devotion, service, sacrifice and hard work.

Carers across Australia will receive immediate financial relief as part of the government’s Economic Security Strategy. This will come in the form of a one-off payment to carer payment and carer allowance recipients. The government’s package will deliver these one-off payments to 130,000 carer payment recipients and 470,000 carer allowance recipients right across this country. Those on carer payments will receive $1,400 for singles and $2,100 for couples, while carer allowance recipients will get $1,000 for each eligible person being cared for.

In my electorate of Werriwa alone, this will provide financial relief to 594 singles receiving carer payments, 1,161 couples receiving carer payments, 1,334 single carer allowance recipients and 2,979 couple carer allowance recipients. We must support these people who need it most. This belief is based not only on a sense of social responsibility but also on the understanding that the work that carers do in our community quite frankly is good and essential work.

In the limited time I have left I would like to mention Vicki Meadows, who works for me. Her daughter, Melissa, is severely autistic, and I know firsthand what Vicki experiences as a carer. I am very fortunate to have Vicki working in my office. Unfortunately, in the south-west of Sydney we have a disproportionate amount of people with a disability. One of the things that Vicki brings to bear in working in my office is to show that we actually do care. We do not fob people off; we actually try to work with the Commonwealth, state and local government authorities to ensure that people with disabilities and their carers are assisted wherever possible.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements has concluded.