Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Let me get to the end of this, Senator Coonan—‘and $600 if you are a recipient of the carer allowance.’ I cannot tell you the number of carers who said to me: ‘Of course we value the $1,000’—or the $1,600, or the $600 if they are a carer allowance recipient—‘but, gee, I hate the way they do it. They make me feel as if I am begging for this money.’ Of course they value that money. Every senator in this place knows how hard it is for people who are on fixed pension-like incomes, like people who are on the carer payment, to make ends meet. It is enormously valuable to get that money. But they were given it as, well, a bribe—and that is what people have said to me, that they felt as if they were being bribed or ought to be grateful for this money. I am very pleased and proud of our government for recognising the reality that carers are now budgeting this money into their annual budgets. They do that, and we know that.