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

I'd like to take a little time this evening on the adjournment to talk about an important issue, which is grandparent carers across the Australian community, specifically the progress that has been made since the Senate Community Affairs Committee inquiry into the matter. The Senate will recall that in December 2013 it established an inquiry into grandparents who take primary responsibility for raising their grandchildren. The Senate inquiry received 176 submissions from all over Australia, with 36 submissions from Western Australia. The committee held seven public hearings across the country and heard from 116 witnesses. The committee tabled its final report in October the following year.

In January 2016 the government responded to the report, supporting an increased focus on encouraging greater awareness and use of existing services and supports available to grandparent carers. As part of its response, the government agreed firstly to a trial expansion of the existing Grandparent Advisers program and expanded outreach activities conducted by all eight grandparent advisers. Secondly, increased support for grandparent and kinship carers by providing national information, resources and support. Thirdly, a national survey to better understand the demographics of non-parent carers and their needs so as to inform government policy and practices. I'm delighted that this very important, but often very invisible, issue continues to get the attention of the government.

In 2017, following the evaluation of an expansion of the existing Grandparent Advisers program, the program was expanded, and increased outreach activities have been implemented across Australia. Last year there were 319 Grandparent Adviser outreach activities conducted across Australia. In WA a total of 55 activities were undertaken, including 28 external outreach activities and 27 internal outreach activities.

Groups involved in the expansion included the WA Department for child protection, Centrecare, Wanslea Grandcare program, Escare and MercyCare childcare centres. We have also seen an increase in support for grandparent and kinship careers and their peer support groups. The Raising Children Network was engaged to provide national information, resources and support.

Five carer forums were held in March and April 2017 involving over 300 participants, including 200 grandparent carers and over 80 service providers. In WA the forum was held on 12 May 2017 and included 50 grandparent carers and 24 service providers. These forums achieved a number of outcomes, such as increased grandparent and kinship carer capacity to care for their grandchildren and an understanding of how to run effective peer support groups; improved awareness of support services and resources available for better access; increased awareness, understanding and recognition of the role and contribution of grandparent kinship carers in the community and strengthened service provider capacity to support grandparent and kinship carers.

To increase service provider capacity, and to assist peer support groups to function effectively, four service provider forums were held across Australia, including one in my home state of Western Australia. The development of national information and resources has also been completed. The new information, tools and resources include: new Parenting in Pictures resources that cater for audiences with low text literacy; a comprehensive list of major support services in each state and territory; a new landing page on raisingchildren.net.au for all translated content to assist carers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; and the completion of two electronic how-to guides to support and assist carers. Finally, the national survey was conducted in late 2016 by the Australian Institute of Family Studies with support from state and territory governments. The final report was submitted to the federal government in 2017 and was recently published in May 2018 on the Australian Institute of Family Studies' website.

Since the government's response, grandparent carers have gained a number of protections and positive financial changes following a number of reforms to social security and childcare legislation. I acknowledge Senator Claire Moore and Senator Carol Brown, who also participated on the Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry some years ago. Specifically, grandparent carers have been exempted under the family tax benefit part B changes. The family tax benefit part B continues to be available, as per the current rate structure, to grandparent and great-grandparent carers. Grandparent carers have been given access to a new subsidy under the coalition's new Childcare Assistance Package, which begins on 2 July 2018. This grandparent-specific top-up subsidy is available in addition to the standard childcare subsidy and will provide income support for those grandparents who are the primary carers of their grandchildren. We've also exempted grandparent carers from the childcare subsidy activity test. This means grandparent carers will be eligible to access up to 100 hours of approved child care fortnightly. I'm sure everyone in the Senate would agree that grandparent carers deserve our continued support and advocacy. While this is progress, there is always much more that can and should be done for these unsung heroes who live in our community.