Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, Carers and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) Bill 2009 and the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009. These bills make significant amendments, giving more support to carers who receive carer payment in respect of a child. These bills, I anticipate, have the support of all sides of the chamber. A change of disability terminology and wider and fairer eligibility criteria significantly move us forward in the way we support carers of children with a disability and the children who have a disability or severe medical condition. The new assessment for eligibility, moving away from the existing method based on rigid medical criteria to the level of care required, will see carers involved in short-term and episodic care in receipt of the carer payment, including times when a child is in hospital, easing some of the financial burden that comes with caring for a child in such circumstances.

In recent months, following my appointment as the coalition spokesperson for carers, I have had the opportunity to meet and speak to many Australians who dedicate their lives to caring for others. These Australians are unpaid; they give their time, often 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide care, love and support, often at a financial, emotional and social cost to themselves. They are parents, grandparents, siblings, partners, relatives and friends. And every day they assist with personal care, health care, transport and other activities. Every day they find themselves the giver of first aid, counselling and pharmacology. Every day they are balancing the competing demands on their time. And every day they carry out a role which otherwise would inevitably fall to our public systems, our public hospitals and professional carers to do, which is a cost that society would otherwise have to pick up. Every day many of these people come close to breaking point—emotionally, physically, socially and financially. Every day, despite the tough times that caring can bring, many carers will tell you that there is nothing more rewarding than giving unconditional love and care to a loved one.

These carers are often quite extraordinary. But most take the view that it is just what you do as a partner, a parent, a relative or a friend. I must say that I welcome the introduction, albeit belatedly, of this legislation to the Senate. This legislation brings some further assistance to those carers who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in circumstances that have changed their lives. This legislation builds upon the former coalition government’s recognition that there was a gap in the level of assistance for families caring for children with a disability and is a further step in considerable progress in providing support to carers which began under the coalition. I must say it is disappointing that there has been such a delay in this legislation reaching the parliament. But I have no doubt that we in this place will at least unite in supporting the expansion of financial support for carers of children with a disability or severe medical condition.

The genesis of this expansion in financial support was under the former coalition government, with a review being initiated in March 2007 into the carer payment (child) to examine the ability to expand support for carers of children with profound disability or severe medical conditions. The review, which recommended a fairer assessment process and less red tape, was handed to the incoming Rudd government in November 2007. It took the Rudd government until March 2009—nearly a year and a half—to take action. Although I welcome the government’s belated action to support carers, it must be noted that it is unfortunate that it has taken so long to implement and that many families deserving of this support have had to wait unnecessarily.

For carers of children with a disability, there was a step up in support when in 1998 the coalition government extended support to carers of children with a profound disability and in 2006 further extended support to children with severe intellectual, psychiatric or behavioural disabilities. Also under the coalition, every year from 2004 to 2007, carers received a one-off carer bonus payment of $1,000 to each person in receipt of the carer payment and $600 to each recipient of the carer allowance for each person in their care. This was in recognition of the vital role that carers play in our society and the tremendous financial burden they carry.

At this point it should be noted that, in 2008, the Rudd government failed to recognise this and in fact wanted to remove support from carers by stopping the payment of the carer bonus. The Rudd government did not recognise at that time the value of our carers, and it was only after community outrage and opposition from the coalition that they belatedly backed down. Whether or not it was to smooth over that mistake of 2008, I welcome the news in this year’s budget that carers will continue to receive a bonus annually, which has been renamed the ‘carer supplement’. It is an annual payment welcomed by carers. Many carers spend it on much-needed items in relation to their caring role or on the care recipient. Knowing this payment will be received certainly helps this most vulnerable group in our community with their forward planning. I am pleased that the coalition initiated the review into carer payment (child) which has brought us to where we are today.

Mr Acting Deputy President Ryan, I understand this is your first time in the chair. It is good to see you there. I have enormous respect for carers and today pay particular attention to those carers of children under 16. To care for a child with a disability requires enormous commitment and patience—qualities for which I have huge admiration. Yes, as parents you undertake to care for your children until they are sufficiently independent to look after themselves—which, nowadays, usually seems to extend to well in their 30s—and, yes, part of being a parent is being there for your child in sickness and in health and through the ups and downs, achievement and mishaps. And that is no different for a parent of a child with a disability or a severe medical condition. Indeed, they share the same hope for their child to achieve.

However, a child with a disability or a severe medical condition does need that additional care and attention. Even with our occasional extended parliamentary sitting hours—which we were talking about a moment ago—we could never come close to understanding the continuous commitment to long hours by thousands of Australians who are providing a high level of support and care to loved ones each and every day. We all know—or should know—that carers of a child with a disability or a severe medical condition carry a huge emotional and financial burden above and beyond that of other parents. And when there is support, like the carer payment, that can give to carers of children under 16 the income support that they need, none of us should begrudge them that. After all, the savings that carers provided to the community vastly outweigh any cost to the budget of this sort of support.

It can be a huge challenge to adjust initially to the needs of a child who has a disability or a severe medical condition. The caring requirements of a child with a disability or a severe medical condition often go much further than that of day-to-day parenting. Their child, who is as loving as any other, may well be unable to independently undertake basic personal care and will require additional attention and support each day. To be cared for in the familiar surroundings and the loving environment of the family is often—and you would hope—the preferred option. But this can come at a cost. In these circumstances families often find themselves sacrificing their health, work opportunities and a regular social life to meet the demanding role.

Many parents also have the needs of other siblings to consider, and the carer payment is there to support carers in these circumstances. The carer payment provides income support to people who, because of the demands of their caring role, are unable to support themselves through substantial workforce participation. It is a payment in recognition of their full-time commitment to that caring role. Carers may not be on the payroll of a corporation and are far from receiving an income to match a private sector salary, but that does not mean that they are not making a significant contribution to our society. According to the ABS in 2008, a primary carer’s role is equivalent to a traditional full-time paid job of 40 hours or more per week in the labour market.

Even when providing this high level of support, carers want to be part of the workforce, and many are juggling their own commitments to work and family as well as their demanding caring role. While we acknowledge that many carers choose to do this for the love of their child, there are some who are required to quit work and access the carer payment because the support services are simply not there. Even when that child becomes an adult, many carers of these children remain their carers as support services to live independently are not always there. Easing the financial burden is just one way that we can show our support for carers.

I have a great deal of respect for carers. Many struggle from day to day but have such strong feelings that what they are doing is their duty and—because it is their duty; it is just something that you should do—many in fact do not make a claim for the carer payment or carer allowance. Others, finding it hard in tough times, do make claims—and, as an entitlement, so they should—but even then things are not easy. There are also many others who have been unable to access these payments but now, through these changes, will have the opportunity to do so.

Another matter which this legislation addresses is the situation of a sick child in hospital. It is never an easy time for a parent when a child is in hospital, and it is even harder when the parent knows that their child’s time may be short. It is never easy when a traumatic injury or the diagnosis of a condition turns the lives of a child, their siblings and their family upside down. The extension of eligibility in this legislation goes some way to assisting those families who have unfortunately found themselves in that situation. For a parent to know they will receive some support whilst staying by their child’s side in hospital and then to be able to remain at home with them to give the love, care and warmth that a parent brings will give enormous relief to many parents faced with such a life-changing circumstance.

One payment that the coalition government introduced which I do have some concern about, which is not directly touched upon by this legislation, is the carer adjustment payment. It was introduced as a one-off, immediate, non-taxable payment of up to $10,000 to assist families to adjust following a catastrophic event where a child aged nought to six is diagnosed with a severe illness, medical condition or a major disability. As a parent you always want to do the best thing for your child, and that can mean providing a great deal of care 24 hours a day. Choosing to do so at home, where the child feels comfortable, is often preferable. The government has not at this stage outlined what, if anything, will take the place of the carer adjustment payment when it expires in December this year. I raised my concerns during the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs public hearing in April and more recently during Senate estimates, as I do not want to see this group of people, who we have strived to assist, disadvantaged in any way.

Assisting families to adjust to their new caring arrangements is important. Certainly the new carer payment (child) with wider eligibility will be welcomed, and some families will have access to short-term and episodic payments following the changes. But I urge the government to ensure that, beyond December 2009, families who find themselves in such circumstances and who do not have access to short-term and episodic payments are not disadvantaged in any way.

In recent months we have seen both the House of Representatives and the Senate inquire into the needs of carers and it has brought the plight of carers to the forefront of people’s attention. In a sense, we are all carers in our own way and in our own lives; it is just that some have a more demanding role than others. This particular legislation was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs in March of this year. I attended those hearings, and it was a good opportunity to hear first-hand how the implementation of this legislation will affect carers. It was unfortunate that we could not have heard from more witnesses to gain a better understanding of how best to support carers of a child with a disability. What we do know is that each situation is individual and each child’s care needs are individual. So the opportunity for peak bodies like Carers Australia and the Association for Children with a Disability to give evidence did give carers a public voice. It gave carers an opportunity to speak directly with senators about the key issues they face in relation to carer payment (child) and how assistance should be provided.

One issue that was raised at the hearings was the new assessment, known as the disability care load assessment (child). It is widely accepted that the new concept of assessment will improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of assessments, bringing improved administration, better claims processing and the capacity for more complex claims to be handled by a dedicated team. However, the design of the test, which comprises a carer questionnaire and a treating health practitioner questionnaire, was highlighted as a key area to making the new assessment successful. If the questionnaires do not address the issues that carers face and if they do not ask the right questions then the implementation of the new assessment may not achieve what it has set out to do. Consulting with carers, the people we regard as experts in this area, about the questionnaires is very important if we are to get the assessment process right. It is important that dialogue with carers continues in order to ensure that the new assessment tool is written in the best way, is in the best format, asks the right questions and addresses the concerns of the people applying.

Clearly, no government or parliament could ever replace the thousands of Australian carers and the contribution they make to the lives of the people they care for. These carers are critical to enabling children with a disability to remain at home, where they would prefer to be, and to have the opportunity to thrive and develop surrounded by their family. Whether these carers choose to identify themselves as carers or not, it is our responsibility to support them in whatever way we can. As members of parliament, we can help to get the support framework right, but we can never seek to transform lives like those who are carers can. It is important that we recognise carers and support them in their valuable role. Although this legislation does not by a long way solve all the issues that carers in Australia face, it is a step in the right direction. The support and passing of these bills in a smooth, cross-party way marks a significant and welcome move forward for our Australian carers. I am pleased to see these bills moving through the Senate chamber at last. The opposition will support this legislation.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens believe that the carers of Australia need and deserve much more support than they are currently getting, and we are pleased to see the introduction of this legislation. Carers provide more than care to their loved ones. They also support our community in a vital way that is irreplaceable. When you consider that the Access Economics report that was produced a number of years ago estimated the cost of care at about $30 billion a year, you can see the level of support that carers provide to our community. They provide quality of life for those living with a disability, for the sick and for the elderly. They provide quality of life and improved outcomes for people far beyond any monetary value. But that care comes at a personal cost. I am sure every member of the Senate, and, in fact, every member of parliament, has at some time worked with carers.

The Greens support the intent of the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) Bill 2009 and the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009. However, we do remain concerned that there are a number of issues that came up during the Senate committee inquiry that have not been addressed, and I will be talking about them shortly. We are putting forward what we believe are sensible and practical amendments to the bills that address the shortcomings that were raised during the inquiry. We believe these will enable the legislation to achieve better outcomes. In fact, they will enable it to achieve its intent, which, as the name of the bills suggests, is improved support for carers. I note that all these concerns were acknowledged and discussed in the report by the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. There was strong consensus amongst the carers, advocates and experts we took evidence from. They welcomed and supported the intent of this legislation but also called for a number of the problems to be addressed. These include, for example, issues that were raised about the child disability care load assessment tool, episodic care, exchange care and hospitalisation.

I would like to talk, firstly, about the disability care load assessment tool for children. I note a quote that I thought expressed rather well the thoughts of a lot of people who gave evidence to the committee. It said that the care load ‘should be conceptualised as broader than physical or personal care’ because it entails ‘constant vigilance, supervision, encouragement, nurturing, and the ensuring of medication compliance’. The Greens were concerned that when the care load assessment tool was first put out the government did not consult carers and peak organisations in the development of the tool. A draft of the proposed disability care load assessment tool for children was not available to stakeholders prior to the inquiry. In fact, some of the witnesses who appeared before the inquiry had not yet seen the tool. That meant that, unfortunately, there was not sufficient opportunity for carers and experts to assess the proposed tool and provide detailed input to the committee inquiry. The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, FaHCSIA, told the committee that it considered the introduction of this tool to be ‘the most significant reform’ involved in the bill. While the development process was based on a questionnaire involving 1,200 carers, paediatric specialists and allied health professionals, there was no opportunity given to those carers and experts to consider and provide feedback on the actual assessment tool. Given the importance of this issue and the significant role of the assessment tool and these reforms, we do not consider that that was good enough. We believe that there needs to be a robust process to ensure that we get the details of the assessment process right.

Carer organisations and care experts raised a number of concerns about the concept of the assessment tool, including whether or not the tool takes into account the geographic disadvantage of those living in rural, regional and remote locations; access to support services and networks, both formal and informal; the provision of appropriate aids and equipment, such as wheelchairs and lifting equipment; the psychological impacts and factors beyond a simple assessment of hours of care; the changing care needs as children grow, including episodic care needs and longer term changes; the impact of challenging behaviours and mental health issues on the level of care required; and whether the tool adequately differentiates which parent or family member actually provides the care.

We listened very carefully to the responses given by FaHCSIA when a number of committee members raised these concerns in the inquiry. We do not believe that all of these issues were effectively and explicitly addressed. Some of them have been. We have heard from many stakeholders who do not believe that their concerns were addressed either. FaHCSIA admitted during the inquiry process that the tool did not look at psychological and emotional impact on the carer or assess the access the carer has to support services, networks and structures. This, we believe, impacts on their ability to care. We do not believe that giving carers the opportunity to comment on the disability care instrument after it had been developed was sufficient. We would have preferred them to have been included in the process a lot earlier on. We do not believe that the process was appropriate, given the importance of this tool.

We are also concerned that some of the answers we received during the committee inquiry did not adequately address the issues facing carers in rural, regional and remote areas. We believe this requires much more attention. Take, for example, the response that we got about travel time to appointments. Carers in rural, regional and remote areas in particular have to deal with a myriad of issues beyond just travel time to appointments. They have reduced access to support services, increased costs of living, increased costs of accessing services, restrictions on the availability of respite and support, and many further issues. We are also concerned about the issues surrounding psychological care and psychological impacts on carers. We do not believe that that has been adequately taken into account.

We believe that consideration of the impacts on carers of the lack of availability of aids and equipment is not captured in the simple assessment of an increased care load. For example, if a person with a larger child with a disability is taking longer to care for that child because they do not have a lift to get them in and out of bed or to lift them in other situations, we do not believe simply providing and taking into account extra time is the solution. If the carer, for example, ends up with chronic back pain, is hospitalised or becomes unable to provide care where a simple aid has not been provided—or if the child is dropped and ends up suffering, for example, serious injury—then the cost to the carer, the child and the whole health system is much greater. The focus has to be on assessing care needs properly so we can provide both the right level and the right kind of support. Better assessment should result in much better targeting of care.

Exactly the same issues apply to the assessment of changing care needs and the impacts of challenging behaviour on the demands of care. It is not enough to simply rely on ad hoc measures, as was argued in evidence to the committee, and we hope that changing needs will incidentally trigger a change in assessment and that mental health issues will be picked up in measures for the extent of care required. We need to be more explicit in our use of the assessment tool so that we can take a stronger, evidenced based approach to the provision of services and support to carers and their loved ones. To be clear, while we do believe this legislation’s proposals are much improved, we believe that there do need to be some other improvements.

We understand that FaHCSIA gave an undertaking to the committee inquiry that they would meet with stakeholders to discuss the operation of the disability load assessment tool for children, that it was released during the inquiry process and that at that stage FaHCSIA undertook to consult and continue to work on improvements to the tool. As I said, to be clear, we do think it is a significant improvement, but we think that there could be further improvements. We note that the assessment tool will be a disallowable instrument. This gives the Senate the power to disallow the tool, so we are hoping that stakeholders’ concerns will be addressed prior to it being introduced.

An additional concern expressed by a number of witnesses at the committee inquiry relates to the transition from carer payment (child) to carer payment (adult) and the alignment of the two assessment tools. The Australian Greens support calls made to the committee inquiry for better consistency and a smoother transition between the two payments and support systems. We made that point in our additional comments to the committee inquiry. We believe that further alignment between the tools is essential. There was a commitment made during the inquiry that further work would be done on this issue, and I am keen to get assurance from government that this work is continuing and also a time frame for when we can expect some further work on the adult tool.

Another issue raised during the inquiry was episodic care. The proposed legislation includes provisions that take into account episodic care for those providing care to someone under 16 who requires care for a period of three to six months. We very strongly welcome this change as a much needed reform to what has proved in the past to be a significant challenge to carers and support services. We believe these are sensible changes, but the need for episodic care is not limited to people under the age of 16. Their care needs do not dissipate when they hit this age. Those with episodic mental illnesses are just as likely to have occasional episodes where they require care as adults, and with many other episodic and degenerative diseases there is a likelihood of still requiring episodic care. In fact, this likelihood may increase with age.

The Australian Greens remain concerned by the gap that exists in the provision of care for those with episodic disability or illness. Episodic care can occur not only for those with mental illness but for those with degenerative disease as well. To this end we are seeking to extend these much needed and sensible changes so that they apply to carers of adults with episodic care needs as well. While the changes in the current legislation are predominantly about children with a disability, I note that the title of the bill indicates that it is about support for carers. We think that should be for all carers and that, where issues can be fixed now for those adults requiring care, they should, rather than them being left to a later stage. We are not trying to prioritise one set of carers over another. To this end, I will be moving an amendment to include a provision allowing carers for adults to be eligible for carer payment when caring for a person with episodic care needs. This provision that I am proposing essentially mirrors the provision in the bill relating to the episodic care needs of children.

One issue that I have raised in this place a number of times relates to separated partners sharing the care of children. I was pleased to see that the exchange care provisions were put in place for those carers sharing care of two or more children. However, we are concerned that these provisions do not apply to those parents who are sharing the care of a single child with a disability. The division that is made in the legislation between parents caring for a single child and those caring for two or more children is a nonsense that has no evidence base. This division does not seek recognise the actual care loads and changing circumstances of separated families with one or more children with a disability. It seems instead to create an artificial ideal of separated parents juggling the care of two or more children with a disability to maintain a continuing and constant care load. This seems to me to be a bureaucratic invention whose sole aim is to simplify the administration of carer payments rather than seeking to fix the way in which carer payments are made to recognise the reality of shared care of a child with a disability.

The argument presented to the committee inquiry was that there is currently no provision to receive partial payment of carer payment. This reflects a problem with the current legislative payment system that has nothing to do with the requirements of a real family. For many parents caring for a child or children with disability, the stresses and demands of providing that care have been a complicating and sometimes, unfortunately, a contributing factor in relationship breakdown. Where there is a single child with a disability who requires constant parental care, that need for care does not disappear when the parents separate. Shared care of a child in need of significant care will adversely impact on the ability of both parents to maintain employment, something that I would have thought was fairly obvious.

Our family law system has changed to enshrine a presumption of shared care. Unless these changes are also unrecognised in our social security and disability support systems, there will be a significant risk of serious injustice being done to those caught in the middle—those single children with a disability and their carer or carers. It is unfortunate that I have had to address this issue a number of times. We have changed our family law but we have not changed our support systems and our social security systems to ensure that both parents who provide shared care are not missing out. That is now a requirement under law; but it is not reflected in any other laws, so unfortunately parents who are sharing parenting are missing out significantly. This was caused by the Welfare to Work changes.

The system as currently proposed extends to separated parents of a single child with a disability the injustice that continues under the existing Welfare to Work legislation. Our social security system only recognises one parent as the primary carer, despite the emphasis on equal shared care in child support and family law. As FaHCSIA admitted in evidence to the Senate inquiry, if there was actually 50-50 shared care for one child, neither parent would qualify under the proposed arrangements because neither of them would be providing continuous personal care or meet the qualifications. This effectively means that the presumption of shared care under the family law system will push the separated parents of a child with a disability into shared care arrangements where neither parent is in a situation where they will be able to provide the care the child requires and neither will be able to take on full-time work. This is a ridiculous situation. We have one law saying one thing and another law saying another thing.

There is a real risk that the unintended consequences of this change are that it will disadvantage separated parents. The statistics show that this is probably fathers. When fathers have a single child with a disability, that will stop them from providing shared care. That means the burden of care will fall wholly onto the other parent, and the statistics show that this is predominantly the mother. This is not a good outcome for the child who requires care or for either of the parents. We should be encouraging shared care through carer support payments in our social security system in exactly the same fashion as we encourage it under family law. Are we really suggesting to parents of a child with a disability that they need to have a second child with a disability if they want support?

To this end, the Greens will be moving an amendment to allow both parents of a single child with a disability to receive the carers payment. I will be moving an amendment to include a provision in the bill to allow parents with shared care of a single child to be eligible for carers payment. The provision I will propose follows the same format as the provisions in the bill for the exchanged care of children but extends the eligibility to parents of a single child.

The Greens welcome the move to enable carers of a child to continue to receive the carers payment while the child is hospitalised. This recognises that a child in hospital still requires care. It recognises that the demands on the primary carer to provide support are not diminished and the carer often spends a significant amount of time—if not all their time—helping the sick child to navigate the hospital system and cope with the stresses and demands of a strange, alien and often frightening environment. The proposed changes to the carers payment in this bill allow carers to continue to receive the carers payment while the child is hospitalised, as long as they continue to care for the child. This is a major improvement on the current situation, whereby the carers payment is suspended or cancelled if the child is hospitalised for more than 63 days. The Australian Greens welcome this recognition of the possibility of continuing demand for care during hospitalisation. As I said, we think it is a very significant improvement. We do remain concerned, however, that this provision only applies to children below 16 years of age, when clearly there will be many circumstances where the carers of adults will also face similar situations. In fact, I have had many constituents raise this issue with me. (Time expired)

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) Bill 2009 and a related bill, the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009 . The primary bill seeks to implement a number of measures to improve the financial support given to carers by the government. Carers Australia, in their submission to the recently concluded Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs inquiry into this bill, noted that there are almost 2.6 million carers in Australia, with nearly half a million of them being primary carers—the people who provide the most care. Further, they noted that one-third of the more than four million Australians with a reported disability had a profound or severe limitation. However, importantly, 1.07 million of these people continue to live in private households—undoubtedly, many of them do so with the assistance of a dedicated carer.

Australia has a significant number of carers and they form a vital part of our community. The daily challenges faced by carers are familiar to many in my home state of Tasmania, where there are more carers per head of population than in the rest of Australia. When compared to the rest of Australia, Tasmania faces its own unique challenges. Tasmania has the oldest population of any state or territory. The Tasmanian population is far more dispersed than the rest of Australia. Around 36 per cent of Tasmania’s carers live in rural and remote areas of the state, compared to 12 per cent nationwide. There are an estimated 69½ thousand carers aged more than 15 years, of which 14,600 are primary carers. This represents around 15 per cent of the total population of Tasmania, which is higher than the national average of 13 per cent of the population.

Like their mainland counterparts, Tasmanian carers face difficulties when it comes to supporting those in their care. A recent report released by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth recognised the financial needs of carers. As my Tasmanian federal parliamentary colleague the member for Franklin, Julie Collins MP, highlighted in her contribution when the report was tabled:

This report highlights the role carers play in detail. Just as importantly, it highlights the juggling they do and stress they are under as they go about their daily lives.

The committee received 1,300 submissions, 1,200 of which were individual submissions, and the report provided 50 recommendations. The government, in this year’s budget, increased the support for carers. The budget introduced a $600 a year carer supplement for all carer payment recipients, on top of an increase in their pension. Recipients of the carer allowance will also receive an additional $600 a year for each eligible person in their care.

When announcing these measures, the Treasurer described Australian carers as the unsung heroes of our community. Indeed, it is important to acknowledge the vital role that carers around this country play in assisting people with disabilities to carry out their daily lives. Their job is undoubtedly not always an easy one. As most of us know, caring for others, especially those who have particular needs, requires a certain degree of dedication, patience, persistence and lots of love. Nevertheless, countless Australians around the country spend thousands of hours each year caring for others who have a disability. The acts of such people deserve to be recognised and valued.

Specifically, however, the primary bill being debated represents part of the government’s response to the report of the Carer Payment (child) Review Taskforce. As the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs report into this bill details, the task force, chaired by Mr Tony Blunn AO, examined the eligibility criteria for carer payment (child) and considered the effectiveness of the payment in providing a safety net for carers of children with severe disabilities or medical conditions.

The review was commissioned in response to concerns raised by carers in the community that the current eligibility requirements for payments were too stringent and therefore financial support was not reaching all of the people who provide care and were the most in need. Indeed, Carers Australia, in their submission to the Senate inquiry, noted that in 2003 there were 390,000 children under the age of 14 with a disability and, of these, 166,700 had a profound or severe limitation. Further, 23 per cent of primary carers were parents caring for a child. As these figures highlight, there are a significant number of children around the country living with a disability who require carer assistance and support.

The task force found that many carers were ineligible for carer payment (child) because the qualification criteria for receiving the payment were overly complex and too restrictive. As such, the task force’s primary recommendation was that the criteria should be reviewed and the eligibility should be assessed based on the care need and care provided, where the care precluded carers from substantial workforce participation. The primary bill forms an essential part of the government’s response to the finding of the report.

As the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, the Hon. Jenny Macklin MP, pointed out in her second reading contribution, since taking office the government has made a firm commitment to improve the level of assistance offered to carers of children with a disability or severe medical conditions. Indeed, the changes contained in this legislation are the latest in a series of support measures announced by the government designed to assist carers. These measures are part of a $122 million package, announced as part of the 2008 budget, designed to support and recognise carers. As well as the amendments included in the primary bill, which amount to $273 million over the next five years, and the 2008 one-off payments of $1,000 that were delivered to carers and certain pension recipients, the government has also set aside a further $100 million to be spent on supported accommodation facilities for people with disabilities whose ageing parents can no longer care for them at home and $20 million for carers who experience a catastrophic event involving a child.

The primary bill acts on the recommendation of the carer payment (child) review. It does so by making a series of amendments to the social security legislation in relation to carer payments made in respect of a child. The carer payment is an income support payment made to carers who, because of the demands of their caring role, are unable to support themselves through participation in the workforce. Based on the recommendations of the review, the amendments will deliver a new, fairer set of qualification criteria for the carer payments made. The new criteria will be based on the level of care required by the child rather than the rigid medical criteria currently used to assess a person’s qualification for the payment.

As the minister pointed out, these changes will see the number of carers and families eligible for the payment noticeably increase from 1 July this year. Due to the narrow medically based selection criteria currently in place, only 7,000 carers are deemed eligible for the payment. The department estimates that, as a result of the amendments contained in this legislation, up to 19,000 carers will be eligible to receive the payment from 1 July. That is roughly an extra 11,000 potential carers that will receive financial assistance under the government’s new eligibility criteria. By way of detail, the new assessment used to determine carers’ eligibility for the payment will now be known as the disability care load assessment (child) and will involve a test—

Debate interrupted.