Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to speak to the Committee Affairs References Committee report into grandparents rearing their grandchildren. First and foremost, I think it is a fantastic demonstration of how local issues, often invisible to the Senate, sometimes invisible to senators, can find their way not just into the Senate but into a Senate committee process. As a result of that, we have a report, which we are now debating and which we hope will form the foundation for a much more active discussion in our country, about the fantastic role played by grandparents who are taking full-time, day-to-day, 24/7, 365-days-a-year care of their grandchildren.

Grandparents come to this situation for a variety of reasons. Through the committee hearing process we heard a lot of challenging, courageous stories about what had happened to grandparents and their families. I think what is important is that we focus on how we can support those grandparents who are rearing their grandchildren and at another time perhaps tackle those very difficult issues—mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse—that unfortunately afflict families with young children and find many grandparents having to take primary responsibility for caring for their grandchildren.

I want to share something briefly to give people a sense of what it is exactly that we are talking about. This comes from a submission to the inquiry by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. When talking about the age profile of grandparents and children in families with grandparent guardians, grandparents in these families tended to be older than parents in other families and the children in grandparent families tended to be older than children in other families. Sixty-one per cent of these grandparents, including any partner, were 55 years and over, compared to one per cent of parents, including any partner. In those cases, the youngest child in these grandparent families was either five to 11 years or 12 to 14 years, whereas the youngest child in other families was most commonly under five years or five to 11 years. But this is the most alarming point: of all the families headed by a single grandparent, most were grandmothers—93 per cent.

When we look at their employment status and the reliance on government payments, no grandparent was employed in 66 per cent of these grandparent families, as opposed to 15 per cent in other families. Government pensions, benefits or allowances represented the main source of cash income in 63 per cent of these grandparent families and in 20 per cent of other families. Not only are we talking about the trauma, the challenge and the grief that often accompanies these grandparents; we are often talking about many Australian households who find it difficult anyway.

I would like to acknowledge and give my sincere thanks to other members of the committee: Senator Claire Moore, Senator Rachel Siewert, Senator Carol Brown and Senator Catryna Bilyk, who joined me travelling around the country. I am pleased we were able to go to Albany in the south-west of Western Australia and hear from grandparents in regional locations.

People get bored hearing from politicians. I think in this particular instance it is best to hear from the grandparents themselves. I would like to read two quotes, the first from Kaye Bendle, the President of Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren in my home state of Western Australia. Kaye said:

Money is not everything, but it relieves the financial burden to help grandparents focus on the other issues with regard to their grandchildren's welfare. Also, official recognition, which has been sadly lacking, would help make grandparents proud of the role they are playing in society.

Who would have thought that grandparents were not already proud of the role they are playing in our society? The second quote is from Mrs Sharyne De Young, the Secretary of Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren WA. Sharyne said:

This road grandparents are on is a long, hard, tough, bumpy, painful, soul-destroying and exhausting, but much love, determination and courage is given by grandparents to raise healthy and happy grandchildren. This caring role has been pushed upon them by the inability of their own children to care and take responsibility for their children. Grandparent carers need moral support, emotional support and financial support from everyone in the community to raise these grandchildren so they are not a burden on the taxpayer but become role models in society in their adult lives.

There is much in the report that is commendable—everything in the report is commendable. But it is the first step in what I hope will be a fresh conversation about supporting grandparents who are rearing grandchildren in our community. In 2003, the government at the time, with support of the Council on the Ageing, commissioned an inquiry into this issue, and there were a number of recommendations. Then a few years ago the University of New South Wales issued a very comprehensive report into this issue in our community, with no recommendations. That is not a criticism; it was a university based study. Only now, in 2014, are we having this discussion to bring these issues to people's attention.

I would again like to thank my colleagues and of course the committee secretariat for their work. In closing, I will make a few thankyous—of course, to Kaye Bendle and Sharyne De Young, who were a bit confused that a single guy, a senator for Western Australia, might be interested in their issues. I thank them for their trust. I thank those grandparents who appeared in Perth: Malcolm and Liz Burton, Susette Evans, Shirley Fitzthum, Eugene and Helen Hinkley, Diane Robinson and Jan Standen. And I thank those grandparents who appeared in Albany: Sue Brooks, David and Kim Killey, Michael Tugwell, Graham Benporath, Aishya Mason, Geoffrey and Nicolette Pratt, Barbara Anderson, Roy Cox, and Ron and Patricia Richards. This is just beginning of something that is very important.