Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Legislation Amendment (Child Disability Assistance) Bill 2007 that we are debating today. This bill introduces a new payment, child disability assistance, into social security law. It is an annual tax-free payment of generally, in most cases, $1,000 to recipients of carer allowance for those who care for children under the age of 16 years. It is proposed to start from 1 July this year and is funded over four years. The measure was announced by the Prime Minister and Minister Brough on 28 June this year as part of the disability assistance package. The first payment is proposed to be made in October this year and the total cost of the measure is $566½ million over four years.

In June 2006, carer allowance was paid to 106½ thousand carers, who cared for 125½ thousand children with disabilities. Carers of children with disabilities are under great financial pressure in their efforts to care for their children and pay for essential supports. Medical expenses can greatly exceed those usually faced for most children. Early intervention therapies, respite care, appropriate educational placements, physical aids—all of these costs place families in situations where the provisions for their child are beyond their resources. Madam Acting Deputy President Moore, I know you have done a lot of research about the costs that families bear when they have children with autism. I am aware that there are families paying over $10,000 a year for the early intervention programs that are now being provided for children with autism. That cost of over $10,000 is a cost that only some families can bear. That means that there are families we know receiving very good quality early intervention services for children with autism in the three- to five-year-old age bracket but, because of those costs, there are a lot of families who are missing out.

Children with disabilities have diverse needs that often change over time. Young children with disabilities can benefit from early intervention and therapy to maximise their early childhood development and learning and, therefore, their inclusion in society in their more mature years. Families and children benefit from respite care to allow the family to regroup and to allow the family time to invest in the long-term care of their child. As they develop, it is clear that older children will outgrow aids and equipment and some of this will need to be replaced. Home and vehicle modifications—hoists in the home and help to modify the family car—are often necessary. This child disability assistance payment will assist carers with the purchase of this sort of assistance and other assistance that best suits the needs of the family. These $1,000 payments are of course welcome and Labor will support this package through the parliament.

But, in doing so, let me make some very brief comments—acknowledging the time—about the current negotiations between the federal government and the states and territories around the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement. That agreement is currently being renegotiated—and I use the term ‘renegotiated’ extremely loosely. It has been a very, very frustrating picture for people with disabilities to watch. We have seen Minister Brough treat the states and territories with absolute contempt. We have seen the states and territories try as best they can to negotiate in good faith. We have seen the minister put offers on the table and then remove them. We now have a situation where we could end up with an even more complex set of services for people with a disability if the proposals Minister Brough has identified are proceeded with.

You would be aware, Madam Acting Deputy President, of the report of the Senate community affairs inquiry into the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement. One of the very clear messages from that inquiry was that people with disabilities and their families find negotiating the service systems for people with disabilities extremely complex. It would seem that we are about to embark on yet another layer of complexity for people with disabilities and their families. Since March this year I have urged Minister Brough to undertake negotiations with the states and territories in good faith. That has not been achieved and it is absolutely clear, from the correspondence from people with disabilities and their carers, that they are totally frustrated with what they are witnessing.

Disability services are, I think, the best example of the blame game, the best example of where a government or members of parliament take the easy option of blaming someone else for people’s inability to obtain disability services. The blame game must cease. We must end up with a situation where people with disabilities can navigate the system easily and be provided with the services that they are entitled to. As part of that, of course, there is a requirement to look to appropriate levels of funding for disability services in this country.

People with disabilities want to contribute to their society. They want to be part of society. They want to be included. But when they cannot access the services that allow that to happen, the opportunity for them to be part of society is hugely diminished.

I will leave my comments there, except to say that we do support the child disability assistance package that we are debating today. But I urge Minister Brough to look very closely at what the outcome for people with disabilities is going to be if he continues in what I think is quite an adversarial approach to negotiating with the states and territories on the long-term funding for people with disabilities, and that is through the CSTDA.