Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Siewert, I am afraid I am again going to have to disappoint you. I am not going to give you the answer and the time line for amending it, because I do not have it. We are saying very clearly that this is highly complex and we do not have a solution at the moment to the issue you have raised. I take your point: you have placed it on the agenda as an issue, and that is a perfectly appropriate thing for you to do. Quite frankly, our view is that the amendments you have proposed are unworkable. That is not a criticism. This is really complex and we do not think your amendments deal with all those complexities and are workable. We are saying to you that this is not something we can deal with in this part of the legislation. There are very complex implications, in addition to the normal budgetary and systems complications, which go to impacts on a whole range of payments not only in the FaHCSIA portfolio but also in the employment portfolio et cetera.

Just as we have with child support issues, where someone might have care for only two days a month, there is a complexity of decisions about arrangements. As you know, you went through the child support debates where we had those issues about how you deal with the costs and all those sorts of things. It is very complex and issues of equity are very hard to resolve. As I say, the government’s view is that we are not able to resolve the issue you raised today. We accept that it is appropriate for you to place it on the agenda, but we are not able to give you an assurance that we have the solution or that we have a time frame for the solution. We have made a major set of reforms here that go a long way towards improving the lot of carers, and this is a really important package, but the issue you highlight in these amendments is not one we think we can address as part of this legislation and it is not one for which we think we have the answer at this moment. That is part of the public policy debate that can continue after we have dealt with this legislation.

As a personal reflection I might say that, while there are tremendous male carers out there in the community, one of the things that has always struck me as a bloke is how many children with disabilities are cared for by women singly, and I have always found it quite confronting as a bloke when one goes to the meetings and sees how many single parent women are coping with managing the care of children with disabilities. In general terms, it does not do the male gender much credit, from what I have seen, but it does highlight the really difficult issues, the pressures it places on families coping with a child and the ability to maintain the relationship between the parents with those pressures. I am generalising because I have met a lot of great male carers, but there are a lot of women who are left caring for children with disabilities and other children in a family situation without a partner, and they do a tremendous job under enormous pressures.

I mention that because it is something that struck me, but it directly goes to your question about shared care and whether or not we can facilitate better arrangements for shared care that would help deal with some of those family break-ups and try to ensure that both partners can play a role in caring. I know these are very difficult issues. I am not trying to be dismissive, but the answer is, yes, it is an issue; yes, it is highly complex; no, we do not have the answer at this stage; and, no, I cannot give you a time line. However, I concede it is your right to raise what is a real issue.