Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payments for Carers) Bill 2018 is proposing to introduce an income test with a high threshold of $250,000 per annum to both carer allowance and carer allowance (child) healthcare card from September 2018. These are almost the only social security supports that to this point have not been means tested before. The government, we understand, estimates that around one per cent of carer allowance recipients would be affected by this proposed change. The Minister for Social Services has indicated that the savings generated by this measure over the forward estimates will be redirected to funding the integrated carer support service.

Labor has listened to key stakeholders in this area, including Carers Australia, who we understand support this change. Carers Australia and other carer service providers have indicated that they have been working with the Department of Social Services to design a more integrated and nationally consistent model of delivering services to carers across Australia. Labor will support this bill because we are satisfied that the vast majority of Australian carers will continue to be able to access more and better support.

I welcome the government's commitment to provide help to carers before they reach crisis point. We are very concerned about this. The additional counselling support, emergency crisis support and financial planning support that will help many carers at what can be a very difficult and isolating time is welcome. But Labor is concerned that little is known about the proposed integrated carer support service. Not only is the detail about these early intervention supports very limited, but the commencement of the new program has been delayed. These new supports were meant to be available for carers from 1 July this year, but we understand they are now delayed until October. Labor will hold the government to account on this and ensure that the proposed integrated carer support service is properly implemented.

Labor recognises the very significant contribution that carers make to the lives of the people they care for as well as to the broader community. Their dedication in overcoming what can be daily challenges is something that I'm sure all members in this place acknowledge and respect. Over many years, I've had the pleasure of meeting with many carers who provide care to a relative or a friend, particularly in my portfolios of ageing and mental health. Care that enables dignity and independence for the person receiving the care is so important.

Labor has consistently stood up for Australia's carers. In 2009, the former Labor government increased the carer payment by $30 a week. In 2014, Labor stood up for carers by opposing the Abbott and Turnbull government's unfair plan to cut the indexation to the carer payment. If they had been successful in cutting this indexation, the carer payment would have been cut by $80 a week over 10 years. It was a very significant cut that Labor was able to block. I know that many carers have not forgotten about this cut and I understand they are wary of any proposed changes by this government. That being said, we will support the bill today. We support the introduction of means-testing for the carer allowance because it will ultimately lead to better services for carers through the introduction of integrated carer support services. I commend the bill to the House.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the previous speaker, the member for Franklin, for her words of support and the support of the opposition for the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payment for Carers) Bill 2018. Australia's welfare system is based on targeting those Australians who cannot support themselves. The carer payment, the age pension and family benefits are all subject to an income test. This bill ensures government financial support is provided to those who need it most. Targeting payments keeps our welfare system strong and sustainable into the future. This bill is to introduce an income test for carer allowance and for the carer allowance (child) health care card only.

Every day, around 2.7 million Australians care for someone who needs extra help due to disability, age, mental illness or long-term physical illness. In 2017-18, the government expects to spend $8.5 billion on payments for carers. This includes $5.4 billion on carer payment, $1.7 billion on carer allowance for those caring for an adult and almost $600 million for those caring for a child. Unlike most other social security payments, which are income tested and targeted to those most in need, there is currently no income test associated with carer allowance. Carer allowance is an income supplement for people who provide daily care and attention in a private home to a person with a disability or severe medical condition. The current payment is $127.10 per fortnight.

Carers caring for a child under 16 years with disability or a medical condition get a health care card for that child with their carer allowance. Those caring for children under 16 years who do not provide the qualifying level of care required for carer allowance but who provide at least 14 hours of care a week are provided with a health care card in the name of the child.

There is currently no assessment of financial need to qualify for carer allowance and the carer allowance health care card. This bill will introduce an income test with a high threshold of $250,000 per annum to both carer allowance and carer allowance (child) health care card from 20 September 2018. The $250,000 per annum income limit will apply to both singles and couples. The income test will be a fixed limit with no indexation. From 20 September 2018, eligibility for the carer allowance payment and the carer allowance health care card will be restricted to carers whose own income and that of their partner's, if applicable, is below $250,000. This will be based on adjusted taxable income from the previous financial year. The income test will apply to new recipients and those who are receiving carer allowance or who have a child health care card only on 20 September 2018.

Carer allowance adjusted taxable income, or ATI, includes taxable income, employer provided fringe benefits, foreign income, net investment loss, reportable superannuation contributions, tax-free superannuation income, tax-free pension or benefit, and paid parental leave income. It will exclude deductible child maintenance expenditure. Income from long-term financial assets will also be included in the income test for people who receive tax-free income streams. Around 6,500 carer allowance recipients will be affected by income testing in the 2018-19 financial year, because their own income combined with that of their partner's, where applicable, is more than $250,000. An estimated 400 people with a carer allowance (child) health care card only will be affected by the income test. To put this in perspective, as at September 2017, 608,873 people received a carer allowance; 16,579 people received a carer allowance (child) health care card only; and 264,157 people received carer payment.

As we announced earlier this year, the Australian government will invest all of the $85.6 million raised through this measure to introduce a range of new early-intervention and tailored services to ensure carers get early support to manage the stress their role places on them. Getting help early through support services can make a big difference to a carer's life. It can help to reduce emotional or physical strain, and assist carers to stay in work or study, take breaks from caring responsibilities and help plan for the future.

Carers Australia, the peak body for carers, worked with the government as part of a two-year consultative process to design a new and improved model to deliver support services for carers. The integrated carer support service will provide a national integrated approach to service provision for carers, as opposed to the current fragmented system. The introduction of the integrated carer support service represents the biggest reform for carers in more than a decade. It will consist of an expansion to the Carer Gateway website from October 2018, which will enable carers to access new digital services such as peer support, counselling and coaching.

From September 2019, the government will establish a network of regional delivery partners across Australia to provide carers with access to new and improved local services such as information and advice, needs assessment, targeted financial support, counselling and coaching, and crisis support where required. The introduction of the integrated carer support service over the next two years forms the third and final stage of the Integrated Plan for Carer Support Services. The plan reflects the Australian government's priority to recognise, support and sustain the vital work of unpaid carers, as well as support the government's current investment in the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Welfare expenditure on carers in the form of payments and services is an important part of the Australian welfare system. In addition to the $8.5 billion the government expects to spend on payments to carers in 2017-18, the government will also provide around $162 million for the delivery of programs and services that assist and support carers. The government recognises the very significant contribution carers make to the lives of the people for whom they care and to the broader community. The need for carers is increasing, so it is essential we get the balance right in the welfare system between financial support and availability of services. Both must remain sustainable into the future.

We all value the immense contribution carers make to our community, and we understand the challenges they face in helping others in their homes and in their communities. The introduction of a generous threshold for income testing the carer allowance makes the introduction of these new services possible. This bill allows the government to provide financial assistance to those who most need it and increase support services for carers in need. I commend the bill to the House.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to follow the Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services. I place on record my thanks for her support for carers that she's been very diligent in providing. It is a shame that the Prime Minister didn't see the value in all the work she has done. So I want to thank her.

Day after day we are seeing money being ripped out of the hands of the most vulnerable Australians. There are almost 2.7 million carers in Australia who give up their time, energy and resources to assist family members, as you, Deputy Speaker Andrews, and I very well know through all the work that we do together on the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. They support people in their families who are living with a disability, who have a long-term health condition, who are terminally ill, who are mentally unwell or who are drug-dependent.

People become carers in many different ways. For some people it's a gradual process, while others can find themselves taking on this huge responsibility much more suddenly. It's a shame this government didn't bring this issue forward months ago. If they were actually serious about supporting our carers, they would have; but we know for a fact that they are not. Instead, what we are seeing is the Prime Minister forcing Australia's hardworking carers to wait in the dark.

There are just under a million carers in New South Wales, and 2,000 of them are young carers under the age of 25. In my electorate of Lindsay, there are around 15,000 carers. That's about 10 per cent of my entire community. The carers in my community, I think, deserve better than what is being served up. It takes a very, very special person to become a carer. The work they do is not easy, and I thank them. The legislation before us today, the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payments for Carers) Bill 2018, introduces a family income test of $250,000 a year for the carer allowance and the carer allowance (child) healthcare card from 20 September 2018. Carers' payments have not previously been income tested, and the proposed income test is fixed and will not be indexed. We support this change because it will mean that the vast majority of Australian carers will be able to access more and better support, if the government does what it's promising.

According to a report by Deloitte Access Economics, The economic value of informal care in Australia in 2015, unpaid carers provided 1.9 billion hours of unpaid care in that year alone. The Deloitte report also states that the replacement value of unpaid care to the Australian economy in 2015 was $60.3 billion. I think that everybody in this place would unanimously agree that, if we had to put that on the government's purse, we simply could not afford it. The value we place on carers doing paid or unpaid caring work is simply not enough. Informal carers cover a wide range of assistance activities such as personal care, transport, medical care and meals assistance. That means, across Australia, informal carers save the Australian government $60 billion, and we need to make sure that we are supporting them. Informal carers are usually people close to the person who are sacrificing their time, their energy, their money and, sometimes, their careers. It is crucial that this government understands the mental and material consequences of this massive responsibility. To say it is a self-sacrificing job is an understatement.

The ABS most recently undertook a study of disability, ageing and carers in 2015. Information about carers is an important component of that survey. It found that the information collected provided an insight into the many different characteristics of carers and how caring impacts their lives. In 2015, almost 2.7 million Australians, or 11.6 per cent, were carers, with 856,100 people aged 15 years and over identified as primary carers. The ABS survey also found, in that same year, that the average age of a primary carer was 55 years; one-third of primary carers were living with a disability themselves; females made up the majority of carers, representing 68.1 per cent of primary carers and 55.5 per cent of all carers; and, for people aged 15 to 64 years, the labour force participation rate for primary carers and other carers was lower than for non-carers. It is estimated that each week in Australia unpaid carers spend an incredible 36 million hours in those roles. While caring can be rewarding for the carer, it can often be quite thankless through the challenges they face. For carers across Australia, the debilitating financial stress of providing care is not an unfamiliar feeling—a feeling that those opposite can hardly be familiar with. The stress of financial pressures and of juggling both their own needs and the needs of their charges can often lead to serious mental health issues. Financial stresses can include extremely expensive medical bills for complex health needs as well as the inability to properly find a job with flexible hours to empathise with a carer's role.

We need to do more to ensure that carers are well supported in their quest for paid work as well as ensuring that they receive their fair share for the hard and sometimes thankless work that they do. The mental strain of being a carer can come in many different forms. From social isolation due to the high time demands of carer responsibilities to the lack of access and availability of respite, these issues can often hit home rather harder than financial stresses. I speak from my own personal experience when I say that taking on the responsibility of a carer can really turn your life upside down. It means dropping everything in order to prioritise someone else's needs above your family's and your own.

The current payments to carers by the government include the carer payment, which is an income support payment for people whose caring responsibilities prevent them from undertaking substantive paid employment; a carer allowance, which is an income supplement for people who provide daily care and attention at home to a person with a disability or a severe medical condition; the child disability assistance payment, which is an annual payment for carer allowance recipients who care for a child under 16 years with a disability; and the carer adjustment payment, which is a one-off financial assistance to families in exceptional circumstances who do not qualify for other government income support payments. The carer supplement is paid to recipients of the carer allowance for each person they care for.

As at December 2017, there were just under 615,000 recipients of the carer allowance, just under 17,000 recipients of carer allowance with a child healthcare card only and 270,000 recipients of carer payment. The carer allowance is a fortnightly supplementary payment of $127.10, which is hardly a lot of money, to help people who care daily for someone who is sick, frail aged or has a disability, to meet their costs of caring. The carer allowance child healthcare card can be given to children who have a medical condition or disability that requires extra care of at least 14 hours a week, which is not enough to provide their carer with eligibility for the carer allowance.

This bill anticipates that around one per cent of carer allowance recipients and healthcare card holders will be impacted adversely by these changes. In December of last year there were 5,016 recipients of the carer allowance in my electorate and 2,142 recipients of the carer payment.

I know that as a community we need to do more to support not only those who need care but also those who provide it. We need to ensure that there is better support and service provision to assist with the physical, emotional and financial wellbeing of carers. I also know that women are once again disproportionately more likely to be unpaid carers for people living with a disability. They are most likely unpaid and less likely to participate in the workforce than others who are not carers.

Labor recognises the invaluable contribution that carers make to our community. The Carer Recognition Act, which Labor introduced proudly in 2010, was for a national carer strategy and set out some practical actions with time frames and individual agency responsibilities to better protect and help our carers. As we stated, supporting carers is everyone's business, to provide carers with the rights, choices, opportunities and capabilities to participate in work, family and community life. We need to do more to strengthen awareness and understanding of the valuable role of carers and their rights as individuals.

The minister says that the savings which will be generated by this measure will be put towards paying for services to carers—services that are months and months behind schedule. Australian carers were meant to be able to benefit from the increased supports provided by the integrated carer support services from July of this year. Instead, this conservative government is making them wait three months longer and holding the commencement of the program back until October. For months we've been calling on this government to provide further details about what precisely these supports will be and when they will be available.

I'd like to make mention of one amazing carer in my electorate, Elise Webber. I've spoken about her in here a couple of times before. She is the mum of Bobby, who we affectionately term 'Bobby the Brave' after a horrific act of child abuse by his non-biological uncle. Bobby has been left with cerebral palsy, blind, spastic level 5, quadriplegic and with brain injuries which were described as catastrophic and not compatible with life. Bobby has an amazing fighting spirit, and I'm sure that he gets it from his mum. He has multiple lifelong injuries which have severely impacted the way his family are able to live their lives, including both of his sisters and his dad.

Elise cares full-time for her son, Bobby, with the most incredible attitude. She is the Lindsay 2018 Carer of the Year. She is an exemplary carer and an absolute demonstration of the kind of person we need to be supporting. She was also the recipient of the Lindsay Woman of the Year award in 2018, and I couldn't be more proud to know her.

Elise and the carers like her deserve to be treated as valuable members of our community whom we support, and should not be used as a footstool to let the responsibilities of government rest on. We'll be watching very closely to ensure that these savings are directed to exactly the location the government has promised, and that we do more to support our carers and those like Elise.

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payments for Carers) Bill 2018. I'm very pleased to follow my colleague and friend Emma Husar, the member for Lindsay. I know this is something that is very close to her heart.

This bill introduces a family income test of $250,000 for the carer allowance and the carer allowance child healthcare card from 20 September 2018. Many of my colleagues have addressed the technical aspects of this bill. In the time that I have, I'm going to turn to carers, sharing their stories in their own words.

I'm a pharmacist, and for almost 10 years I worked in the mental health in-patient units at Wyong hospital in my electorate of Dobell. It was when I sat on the other side of the desk, when I became a carer, that my view of the health system was flipped upside down. So much was invisible to me until I became a carer. As my mum says, you don't sign up to be a carer; you do it because you love them.

I live in a place where people care. I have experienced that as a pharmacist working at Wyong Hospital, as a mental health worker and as a daughter. My experience is backed up by the numbers. The Australian Bureau of Statistics undertook a survey of disability, ageing and carers in 2015. At that time, there were 2.7 million unpaid carers in Australia. Over 850,000 Australians were primary carer for a person with a disability. Almost all primary carers provided care for a family member. More than two-thirds of primary carers were women, and the weekly median income of a primary carer was 42 per cent lower than the median income of non-carers. More than half of primary carers provided care for 20 hours per week or more. According to the 2016 census, there were nearly 34,000 people on the Central Coast of New South Wales—where I live—providing unpaid assistance to people with a disability. In December 2017, 9,346 people on the Central Coast received the carer allowance and 141 received the carer allowance (child) health care card.

To recognise and support carers on the Central Coast, I hosted the 'Walk in my Shoes' carers conference in December last year. More than 300 carers came along for the forum. We held workshops with NDIS, Dementia Australia, Carers New South Wales, Candles Cancer Support Group, Younger Onset Dementia Social Support, Centrelink, My Aged Care, Health Direct Australia and more.

I would like to share with you the story of Greg, a male carer. He was one of the presenters at my conference. Greg works with Candles Cancer Support Group and Men Care Too on the Central Coast. Greg didn't know he was a carer; he thought he was just helping his mum. It wasn't until his mother, Lyn, started losing mobility from a degenerative spinal condition that he realised he was doing more than just being a good son. These were Greg's words:

It took me a long time to acknowledge and recognise that I was a carer. I noticed Mum's health decline and her mobility had changed and that's when I started to look for outside support.

Greg said it was when he started to look for support that he realised the challenges carers face and wanted to make a difference.

I've done a lot of community work so I thought I was linked in and aware of the support that's available, but I found it daunting and overwhelming at times.

There are around 1.2 million men in Australia in caring roles, which is roughly one in 10. So there are a lot of blokes out there caring, but there is not really a program or service out there for them. Greg said peer support for men is an important part of the caring journey. Greg said:

We focus a lot on how to fix things, but when you're caring for someone, you can't always fix things. You may feel like you're not doing something right or that as a man you should be strong and stoic, but it is not always possible to do that. It is important for us to recognise that and talk to other people, our mates and the people around us. It makes it that little bit easier, takes the weight off your shoulders. There are around 13,000 blokes that are carers on the coast, so there's a lot of us around.

I want to turn to the value of care. According to a report by Deloitte Access Economics the economic value of informal care in Australia, the replacement value of unpaid care to the Australian economy in 2015, was $60.3 billion, and unpaid carers provided 1.9 billion hours of unpaid care in that year alone.

I'll turn now to the impact of the changes briefly. The carer allowance, at $127.10 per fortnight, is relatively small in recognition of the significant contribution made by many carers. These payments have not previously been income tested. The proposed income test is fixed and will not be indexed. It is anticipated that around one per cent of the carer allowance recipients and healthcare provider holders will be adversely impacted by this change.

Labor supports this change because the savings generated by these changes will be put towards paying for services to carers through the Integrated Carer Support Service. However, these services are now months behind schedule. Australian carers were meant to benefit from the increased supports provided by the Integrated Carer Support Service from July this year. Instead, this government is making them wait longer and holding back the payment of phase 1 of the program. We will hold them to account. If the government were serious about supporting carers they would have brought this program forward months ago instead of forcing Australia's hardworking unpaid carers to wait.

This government must do much more to support carers in our community, carers like Neville. When I met Neville, he came to talk to me about having to fill in more forms about his wife's care. Her circumstances wouldn't change; they couldn't get better; there was no way that they would improve. He had been a carer to his wife, Judy, for over 25 years after a brain injury following a cardiac arrest in 1992. Her care needs are high and Neville, at nearly 83 years of age, is still doing everything he can to make Judy's life at home more comfortable. Neville continues to be an advocate for carers and is a former president of the Australian Federation of Carers. He needs help, and Judy deserves it. Judy was approved for a level 4 care package in August last year but the funding has still not been provided. They are desperate. They need home modifications to the bathroom and additional physio services which they can't access at her current level. It's just not good enough. And it's not only the aged and carers who are being let down by this government. People with disabilities and their carers are also being poorly served by a desperately under-resourced Centrelink and a botched NDIS rollout.

I want to now turn to Joanne. Joanne is the carer of her sister Lexanne. Lexanne suffered a stroke 18 months ago which left her with limited movement in her right side, blind in one eye and confined mostly to a wheelchair, with leg braces for walking very short distances. She can't push her own wheelchair but, due to her vision impairment, an electric wheelchair is not an option.

When Lexanne moved in, Joanne became her primary carer, but at every point she has had to fight for help. Lexanne's application for the disability support pension took more than six months to process and was rejected. The decision was finally overturned on appeal, but this process took several more months. In the meantime the financial burden fell to Joanne, who works full-time at a local train station.

Lexanne's NDIS experience has been equally poor. Her first plan included around $30,000 for home modifications. Despite this, an OT's report and quotes were lodged, but more than nine months passed before they were processed, by which time all the quotes were out of date. During the review, new quotes were approved and she was placed in the queue for the building contractor, but, while she waited, all the funding for the home modification was removed in her annual review for a plan because it hadn't been used.

I want to now, in conclusion, go to the words of my mother. My mum was, until very recently, a full-time carer for my father, Grant, who lived with younger onset dementia. These are the words that my mum wanted to share with you tonight: 'People say it's a tough job being a carer. Why would you do it? Basically you do it because you love them. So you do what you do. People don't sign up to be carers. It just happens. For people with dementia, you learn that they are more than their memories. They have an emotional memory and an emotional relationship. Grant can experience joy and happiness as well as frustration and disappointment. He is participating in life.'

I am sorry to say that I constantly hear cases like the ones I've mentioned from too many of my constituents. But this government doesn't seem to listen, doesn't seem to care and has no sense of urgency. Australian carers and those who care for them deserve so much better. Thank you.

Ged Kearney (Batman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Payments for Carers) Bill 2018. This bill makes sensible changes to the carer allowance by introducing a family income test of $250,000 a year for the carer allowance and the carer allowance (child) healthcare card. While Labor supports this bill, more must be done to support carers in our community. Means-testing, whilst a legitimate mechanism to target funding to those who need it the most and one that is well understood by the Australian community, will in this instance deliver considerable savings to the government. The minister has said these savings will be put forward and put toward paying for extra services to carers, but any announcements about these services and what they entail are months behind schedule. So, whilst we support this bill, we will hold the government to account and make sure they deliver on this promise of extra services to carers.

As we've heard in this House, the work carers do is invaluable. I know this very personally. I am one of nine children. We were 'the three boys, the three girls and the three babies', or the 'littlies' as we are referred to. I am the in the middle of the littlies. My immediate older sister, Honnie, is the eldest of the littlies, and she has an intellectual disability. She is completely adored by all of us and she actually lives the life of Riley.

Her disability is such that she has a high level of function. She knows her own mind very well. She has definite opinions. For example, she infuriatingly barracks for Collingwood when the rest of us are staunch Richmond supporters. But it does mean that, for the rest of her life—and for the rest of us—she will require care. Living alone for Honnie, my sister, is simply not an option. She has always been cared for by the family. She lived with my mother until Mum died. She then lived with and was cared for by my brother and his children for a couple of years, until he, sadly and suddenly, died. This was a tragedy for my sister as well as for the rest of us. The poor thing came to me on my brother's death, put her arms around me and said, 'Geddy, I just can't take a trick.' She was deeply affected by her mum's death and our brother's death.

There was then, for us, a conundrum about what to do with Hon. We all have incredibly busy lives, we work long days, we travel for work, we have our own children and busy households to care for. And while we often share, if you will, Honnie's care, moving her from house to house is not like having a home. As we all know, having a home of one's own is incredibly important for one's wellbeing, for one's mental health and for one's stability. Enter my elder sister Trish, whose circumstances had led her to move back to Melbourne from Sydney. Luckily, her family had grown, her children had moved on and she was in a situation where she could dedicate her time to become my sister's carer. We were all incredibly grateful for this.

Trish moved into a house with my sister Honnie. They live a modest but comfortable life: close to family; close to where my sister attends her adult training centre; close to public transport, which my sister has learned to use; and close to the shops, where she loves to have a coffee and take herself shopping. She's actually a bit of a shopaholic. This means that she can call her place her own. She has a home where my sister lives with her, provides all her care and takes a great deal of responsibility for all her needs—from daily showering and meals to sorting out her NDIS applications and her medical appointments, and even taking her to see her beloved Collingwood play. It is no mean task to take this on. It is a big responsibility, and I do not underestimate what my sister has offered to do for the family. We are all very grateful for Trish, and we do not take her commitment lightly. The rest of us still help out, giving respite here and there and giving them a break from each other. But without Trish, I know we would have struggled to give Honnie the quality of life she deserves. Carers like my sister Trish are unsung heroes, and we've heard tonight that there are millions of people just like her.

For so many the stress of holding down a job and providing care for a loved one is extremely difficult. Without financial support, that can become almost impossible. The little carer's allowance that they get can make a huge difference, and is important beyond measure both to carers and to those in their charge. We also know that the value to the community of unpaid care was around $60.3 billion in 2015, according to a report by Deloitte Access Economics, and that there are around 2.7 million unpaid carers in Australia. Of course when it is your family and your sister, these statistics do not mean a lot. All we want for my sisters, both Hon and her carer Trish, is for them to have fulfilled lives where they are loved and can live their lives out with dignity and quality.

The majority of unpaid carers in this world, like my sister, are women. They are less likely to participate in the workforce than others who do not have caring responsibilities, making the sacrifice they make even greater. I'm sure that at times my sister wishes she had continued her career. I'm sure that at times my sister wishes she could just get on a plane and travel. I'm sure she wishes that she could do a lot of things that she cannot do now because she has dedicated her life to Honnie. Caring is hard work. It is a commitment. And often it is simply not recognised. As I have seen from my sisters though, it can be incredibly valuable and fulfilling.

Carers deserve the savings from this measure to be allocated to the extra services for them and the ones they care for. They deserve the very best that we can give them. They should already know what the integrated carer support services will provide and when they will be introduced. Labor calls on the government to provide this information and to make the services available. For people like my sisters Trish and Hon, it could mean the difference between having a good quality of life and not. It can mean the difference between my sister Trish being able to provide the health care that my sister Hon needs, and to make sure that she can go on outings on her own, feel independent, do her shopping when she wants to and make sure that she is able to attend her adult training centre where they provide much needed services for Hon. They are the ones who have taught her to get on trains, taught her to get on buses, taught her to go out and earn her own little bit of money that she can in adult training centres, to make sure she can get the coffees when she wants, and that my sister Trish feels confident that she can help Hon achieve all of these things. This bill is important—I know that—but so are the savings and the direction that they will be taking. The savings will be incredibly important to making sure that the services are there for people like my sisters Trish and Hon.