It’s good to be here on the last day of the Pollie Pedal to announce that there will be National Carers’ Awards. These awards will be auspiced by Carers Australia and Life Without Barriers. Two fine organisations that have enormous experience working with carers.
We will be calling for public nominations for these National Carers’ Awards. They will be supported by a corporate sponsor and by the Federal Government to the tune of $50,000.
So, Ara and everyone else associated with these awards thank you so much. The carers of Australia do magnificent work. Most of it absolutely unsung and this is an opportunity to give the carers of Australia the recognition they deserve.
I’d also like to say thank you to all of my parliamentary colleagues; Dave Gillespie, Angus Taylor, Mitch Fifield, Kevin Andrews, Marise Payne and Stuart Ayres, the State Minister for Western Sydney is here. Stuart, good to see you.
It's a real thrill to be here at the close of Pollie Pedal 2014. The 17th annual Pollie Pedal bike ride.
For me, Pollie Pedal started in Moree, then it went to The Hague, London, Al Minhad and Singapore and Mudgee. Then it went to Lithgow, Katoomba and now Penrith.
This has been a very important part of my public life – 17 years now. Ross Cameron and Jackie Kelly and I started the thing off back in 1998 and Fiona, as you say, we have raised money for lots of good causes over the years but there has been no better cause than Carers Australia.
Ara, to you, I want to say thank you very, very much for the extraordinary enthusiasm that Carers have had for this whole Pollie Pedal exercise. You haven't been the kind of beneficiary that just said thank you very much, we are grateful for the money. You have made this a joint effort. You have been an absolute integral part of our team over the last three years. The great thing about the involvement between senior members of Parliament and Carers Australia is that not only have we, as part of this Pollie Pedal exercise, been to parts of our country that senior politicians don't often get to but we have met people and we have heard something of their life that we might not otherwise have heard.
Barbara, thank you for the experiences that you have just shared with us today; uplifting, frustrating, daunting experiences that you have shared with us today.
It's government's job to do what it can to respond sensitively and intelligently to people in the predicament that they find themselves.
Governments inevitably are rule-based. The trouble with rules, is that rules often have difficulty accommodating the real life situation that people are in. So, it's always a work in progress trying to adjust the rules to accommodate the almost infinite complexity of human life. But you have got three ministers with you today. You have got Marise Payne, the Minister for Human Services. You have got Mitch Fifield, who is the Minister responsible for disabilities. You have got Kevin Andrews, who is the senior Cabinet Minister in this area. All of them will be listening to your stories, saying how can we make our system more responsive to the real life experience of people like you, Barbara.
So, thank you for sharing something of your life with us because I believe that government is more effective when it is more engaged with people in the place that they are actually inhabiting.
I have experienced over many years now the disjunction between the world of the official briefing and the world that people actually inhabit. So often we can dwell in this world of officialdom where policy is all very marvellous but if it doesn’t actually translate into something that helps people in their own homes, in their own neighbourhoods and towns and suburbs well it is all a bit pointless.
It is listening to people like yourself which give us the real test of whether our policy is working.
So, Marise and Mitch and Kevin, you might like to have a chat to Barbara and just get some of these things as well assimilated as they can be.
Look, sadly this is the end of Pollie Pedal 2014. I haven’t really had a chance to turn my mind to Pollie Pedal 2015 other than to say – there will be Pollie Pedal 2015!
I hope to see very, very many of you on the road in 12 months time.
Thank you so much.
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