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

I will only advance one of the arguments anticipated by Senator Siewert, which is the one I advanced to her previous proposition, which is that we will be dealing with the question of the response to the House of Representatives committee report in terms of the treatment of adults, and that consideration will be occurring. We are not seeking to respond to that as part of this legislation. There are obviously huge implications in all of this. The populations are different and the characteristics are different. We are not intending to respond in this legislation to all those issues around carers of adults. That will be part of the consideration in responding to the House of Representatives committee report.

I am not going to advance the argument about respite. It may well be the government argument, as Senator Siewert said, but having cared for my dying father a little bit in the last month or so—although I must say my sister did most of the care—I certainly have lived the experience of that sort of support when people are in hospital et cetera. I know the pressures it places on people and I know my experience is minuscule compared to those who are caring full time and under much worse conditions than we had to deal with. There is no doubt that the demands of caring for an adult—whether it is someone with a disability or someone who is terminally ill or what have you—are enormous. As Senator Siewert rightly points out, those obligations in caring do not disappear when people are in hospital or other care. There do not seem to be enough hours in a day to meet all those obligations, let alone to do a full-time job as well.

If I needed any reminding, my recent experiences have reminded me of the actual burden that carers face and the tremendous sacrifice that people who do that long term make. I am not sure what the official government policy is in terms of the respite argument, but I am not advancing it tonight. I may be whipped into line on it on some further occasion, but I will certainly be making the argument internally that we have to consider the fact that carers continue to have a role when people are hospitalised or in other forms of care. I will leave it to the minister how that public policy is responded to. Before I have another slash outside the office, I had better stop before Ms Macklin comes down to deal with me. The basic answer is that the issue you raise is one that ought to be on the agenda, and it is on the agenda. The government will look to respond to that with other issues surrounding carers of adults in responding to the House of Representatives committee report.

Question negatived.

Bills agreed to.

Bills reported without amendment; report adopted.