Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, I present the committee's report entitled Recognising, valuing and supporting unpaid carers: inquiry into the recognition of unpaid carers, together with the minutes of proceedings.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—Unpaid carers are heroes in our communities, but their roles are largely unrecognised and undervalued. Carers provide 2.2 billion hours of unpaid care each year in Australia, which would cost nearly $80 billion to replace with formal paid care. Carers often sacrifice their careers and retirement plans, education goals, social lives and health and wellbeing to look after the needs of others, and many do so with little support. However, demand for unpaid care is expected to outpace the number of carers taking on caring roles in the future. If we do not look after carers now, Australia will need to address an increasing carer deficit in the future as our population changes.

The committee examined the effectiveness of the Carer Recognition Act 2010 in recognising and raising awareness of the role of carers and developments in the policy landscape since the act was established, and it considered options for reform.

I want to acknowledge the important work of the former committee chair, the late Peta Murphy MP, who led this inquiry until her death in December 2023. Peta was committed to making a difference in public life and brought compassion, intellect, integrity and good humour to her work on this committee and in everything she did.

The Carer Recognition Act aimed to increase recognition and awareness of carers and to acknowledge the valuable contribution they make to society by creating an obligation on the part of the Public Service and associated providers to observe its principles. In doing so, the act represented a step forward in the recognition of Australia's carers. However, despite the best of intentions, the act has not encouraged a cultural change in how Public Service agencies and their associated providers interact with the support carers. The act is not achieving its aims because it is unenforceable, contains weak and vague statements without clear calls to action and relies on a voluntary and inconsistent reporting system with little oversight or accountability.

The act needs to be modernised and strengthened to encourage meaningful change in how carers are recognised and treated by the services they interact with. It should provide a more inclusive definition of the term 'carer' to reflect the diversity of care relationships. The definition should be extended to acknowledge care provided because another person has a disability, is experiencing mental ill health or a medical condition, is frail and/or aged or is experiencing alcohol or other drug dependence. It should explicitly recognise young carers and specify that people can be in multiple care relationships.

Currently, the act allows Public Service agencies to self-assess if they are a care agency. This is not working, and there should be stronger obligations on all Public Service agencies and their employees and agents to reflect the principles of the act. The Statement for Australia's Carers contains important details that remain far from being realised, in part because the act confers no rights on carers. Carers' rights should be enshrined in legislation, and the committee recommends that the Australian government seek legal advice to determine how this could be best achieved. Rights for carers should include being acknowledged as partners in care, being involved in planning and policy development, being provided with information regarding the person they care for in order to provide care and accessing flexible work arrangements.

While Carer Gateway is an improvement on the carer support services that preceded it, carers say that Carer Gateway is slow and difficult to navigate and that the supports they receive are not always helpful. Concerningly, there is a lack of respite care options available, which means that many carers are not getting a break and risk burnout. Similarly, there is a need to increase access to high-quality counselling and mental health support options for a diverse range of carers. Further work is needed to ensure carers' health and wellbeing is supported holistically and that carers are prioritised in the healthcare system.

Improved support for First Nations carers and carers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is needed to ensure that the supports they receive are culturally and linguistically appropriate. The Australian government is committed to delivering a new national carer strategy in 2024, which is a welcome development. It's critical that the new strategy outlines how governments will work to implement the act to address the reasons why caring may be unviable for carers and to ensure that carers can access the supports they need. One of the goals of the strategy should be to ensure that there are enough carers to meet demand for care in the future. To do this, we must minimise the negative impacts that caring has on carers' financial security, their mental and physical wellbeing and their social relationships. The new strategy should be co-designed with and monitored by carers and carers' representatives to ensure carers are treated as genuine partners in care provision.

There is a need for more comprehensive data to inform policy and to track outcomes for carers, including a redesign of the Australian Bureau of Statistics survey of disability and carers, new funding for research and data mapping of carers and further ongoing work to collect evidence about carers' health, wellbeing and suicide risk factors through the Carer Wellbeing Survey.

While many men are carers, most of Australia's carers are women. This has significant implications for the lives of women, the gender pay gap, the superannuation earnings gap and the representation of women in leadership roles. The new strategy should include gender equality as a key priority area. This will require work to overcome harmful gender norms that mean that the burden of care largely falls on women's shoulders and policies that encourage more men to be carers.

Further work is required to address the financial disadvantages carers experience over their lifetime, including supporting flexible work arrangements for carers, introducing an income tax credit for carers returning to the paid workforce and considering other options to incentivise and recognise the impact of caring through the income tax and superannuation systems. A community education campaign is needed to promote recognition and awareness of carers' rights and the diversity of carers, to address gender stereotypes and reduce stigma and to drive positive workplace cultures for carers.

This inquiry has been strongly informed by the lived experiences of carers, and the committee is so grateful for the courage of those who came forward to tell their stories. I extend my thanks to all the individuals and organisations who contributed their time, experience and expertise in making submissions and appearing at public hearings.

I commend the report to the House.

Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Carers play an essential and undervalued role in the Australian community. In my electorate there are many people quietly supporting others. They might be caring for a child with an intellectual disability, a partner with multiple sclerosis, a parent with dementia or a friend with mental health issues. For example, Denis and Elizabeth are in their early 80s and are parents of a 44-year-old son with Down syndrome. They're struggling with many systems and services such as the NDIS, Centrelink, Medicare, medical professionals, banks and employment providers to plan for the future of their son when they're no longer around to care for him.

I thank all the witnesses who gave evidence to this inquiry—people like Denis and Elizabeth—many of whom shared their difficult personal stories. I was struck by their generosity and selflessness. They play such an important and, often, silent role in holding our community together, and recognising and supporting them is so important.

While caring is done with love, it does have an impact on the carer. Caring can and, most often, does affect employment, financial security, housing, superannuation, health, wellbeing and relationships. Carers like Denis and Elizabeth need to be recognised and supported. They need to be recognised as experts in the care that their son requires, and they need support to navigate systems to ensure he's housed, cared for and supported in life.

The Carer Recognition Act 2010 does not work particularly well in this regard. The act has an aspirational statement for Australian carers, but this statement does not create any enforceable rights. I sincerely hope that the recommendations of this report are taken up by the government.

My take on the evidence we heard was that the most important thing is the creation of enforceable rights to assist carers when they're interacting with the services they need to support the person they care for, and recommendation 4 seeks to progress this. There are also recommendations about better defining 'carer'; what Public Service agencies need to do for carers; accessing better supports, including counselling, training and respite; complaints; and an income tax credit for carers returning to the workforce. The report includes issues that need to be addressed in the new National Carer Strategy, including targeted supports for particular groups and a community education campaign. For Denis and Elizabeth, implementing these recommendations would mean that the services that they're dealing with recognise the vital role they play and that they know how to access respite and other supports when they need them.

I also want to pay tribute to the chair of the committee during the hearings, the late member for Dunkley, and those who cared for her during her battle with cancer. As someone who was on the receiving end of caring support during the hearings, the evidence must have been very close to home for her. Despite this, she performed the role of chairing these hearings with her usual compassion, professionalism and courage.

I commend the report to the House.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

():  I move:

That the House take note of the report.

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

The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.