[tape begins] Kevin Andrews, ladies and gentlemen.
I was recollecting to Irene Gibbons on the way in that the last occasion that I addressed this gathering was five years ago when I had the opportunity of announcing a major expansion of the community aged care package of our aged care programmes under the title of Staying at Home. And over the five years that have gone by, that has become an increasingly important component of the aged care policies of the Government.
This morning I want both conceptually and also in terms of detail, address some remarks to the Government';s approach to the enormous contributions that carers make to the stability of our community. Social stability and social cohesion and caring for people is an integral part of Australian society. It';s one of those things that ought properly cross the political divide and it ought properly be something which is embraced by all sections of the community. Nobody knows better than this body, this gathering, of the enormous contribution that carers make, not only to the personal happiness and comfort and fulfilment of life of the many people they care for, but also of course the enormous economic contribution that carers make to our society.
I have to say to you that no government will ever have the capacity to fully compensate people for the totality of the economic relief that is provided by carers. And those who provide the care will have a variety of views as to the level of recompense or level of compensation. What governments must endeavour to do is to provide a proper level of financial recognition and support for those who undertake the role and the responsibility of carers within our community. Through partnerships with Carers Australia and the National Family Carers Voice, the Government is endeavouring to work to identify the needs of carers and their families and I particularly welcome this opportunity of meeting so many of you and addressing some remarks.
I don';t want to spend too much time in reprising the various changes that have occurred over the past few years, but I would be doing the Government less than justice if I didn';t remind you of some of the enhancements that have occurred and some of the changes that have occurred in the seven and a half years that the Government has been in office. For example, the carer allowance population has increased from approximately 100,000 in June of 1999 to nearly 300,000 in June of this year. The number receiving carer payments has increased by over 200 per cent from June 1996 to June 2003, with expenditure on carer payment this current financial year of over $700 million. And the Government spends approximately $1.5 billion per year in direct financial assistance to carers. I mention these figures not to suggest for a moment that they are in any way excessive or inappropriate, but merely to underline the very significant increases that have occurred. And we do, of course, live in a society where the requirements for carers and for direct community assistance to carers will continue to rise as the years go by. The demographic profile of Australia is such that there will be increasing emphasis placed and increasing demands upon the budget to provide financial assistance to people who are caring, not only but especially for a growing section of the population which is ageing.
Australia';s demography is no different in substance from the demography of most western nations. We are an ageing population, we are enjoying better health in our later years. But inevitably, there will be growing demands produced by that demographic trend. It means that governments at all levels, particularly at a federal level, because the income support payment responsibilities of governments in our federal system fall upon the national government and not upon the state governments, there will be increasing needs in that area and increasingly governments will need to make decisions about the best expenditure of available dollars.
In the 2002 Budget, the Government provided an additional $80 million over four years to provide a range of support to carers, including for carers of people with dementia, ageing carers of people with disabilities and the expansion of support services for all carers. And these measures built on a substantial record of growing levels of health for carers. For example, the Commonwealth funding for the National Respite for Carers Programme, which has risen five fold from $19 million in 1996 to almost $99 million in the current financial year. And funding has also been provided for a national carers counselling programme being implemented through Carers Australia and the network of carer respite centres. And I want to acknowledge the role of Carers Australia in [inaudible] the carer resource centres that are funded under the national respite for carers programme.
Now I mentioned some of those things ladies and gentlemen, not to suggest for a moment that the task has been completed nor to ignore the representations that are made on behalf of carers in Australia to address other areas of need, but rather to put into proper perspective and a fair perspective some of the changes that have occurred and I hope to illustrate and underline the concern and the commitment and the respect that this Government pays and owes to those who undertake caring responsibilities in our community. As many of you will know, the Government is undertaking an informal review of community care with a view to identifying strategies for a more integrated community care system. The major priorities are ease of access, transparency for people needing help and continuity of care. And I';m very pleased that Irene Gibbons, the chief executive officer of Carers Australia, is assisting this review. And I';m also pleased to note that in the third Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement, the Commonwealth';s offering $2.8 billion to states and territories – an increase of almost $900 million over the last agreement and I';m pleased to note that most of the agreements have now been signed and that the increased funding has begun to flow.
One of the issues that I know is very important to carers and that is the question of an increasing demand for informal and family care and the ageing of the population leading to a need to help people to after a long period of caring for somebody to re-enter the workforce. People returning to work following a period of care often need additional financial assistance. And as part of welfare reform, some $39 million was reallocated to the transition to work programme in the budget of 2001/2002 to fund some 20,200 places over a period of three years from July of last year. The transition to work programme provides vocational assistance to parents, carers and mature aged people who';ve been out of the workforce for at least two years. And the Government has already made moves to provide workplace flexibility through the Workplace Relations Act enabling employees and employers to develop flexible arrangements, including phased retirement approaches to meet the needs of mature aged workers who have some caring responsibilities. And in recognition of the additional care needs, I';ve asked that as part of the Community Business Partnership inquiry into increasing mature aged worker participation in the workforce that they consider recommendations to promote flexible workplaces to enable mature aged workers, who may also be carers, to continue to provide care while undertaking paid work.
I';m aware of the many representations that have been made to the Government on behalf of carers in the Australian community, that there continues to be some concern about the operation of the co-residential requirement so far as the payment of the carer payment is concerned. It has been put to me and put to the Government that the present rules do on some occasions produce unfair outcomes. And I want to inform the conference that the Government does have that particular issue under study and we are examining ways in which areas where it does operate unfairly might be addressed. That will need to be done in a fashion that doesn';t result in an unstainable expansion of eligibility to the payment but will in future operate in a fashion where the particularly unfair cases of the care being provided but not under the same roof, the existing rules operate to the disadvantage of people who are providing that care.
I';ve had, as no doubt you have had, a number of cases brought to your attention where it has worked unfairly and the Government is anxious to find over the months ahead a way of addressing that, which as I say, does not lead to an unstainable expansion but does deal with some of the more difficult cases.
Ladies and gentlemen, I said a few moments ago that one of the great challenges that Australia faced was the changing composition age wise of its population. In common with all other societies, we are a nation that is slowly ageing. Our fertility rate, although not as low as many European countries, such as Italy which has a rate of something like 1.25 per cent, ours is in the order of 1.75 per cent. It is, along with the rates of most other countries, producing over a period of time an ageing population. That, of course, has enormous implications for all levels of government, as well as enormous implications for our society as a whole. It means on the one hand we have to find ways of increasing workforce participation, it means that we have to encourage older people to remain in the workforce longer, it means that we have to provide more flexible opportunities for both men and women who have family responsibilities to balance their work and their family responsibilities. It also means inevitably that we have to have an eye, particularly at the Federal Government level because of our responsibility for income support payments, we have to have an eye for the maintenance of programmes which are essential to the health and the wellbeing of people as the years go by, but we have to maintain them in a way that makes them economically sustainable. I think particularly of programmes such the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, something of an example to the rest of the world, one of the many examples of how Australia in these areas has actually been able to find a combination of public and private contributions to important human services which is better than the either purely private examples that often come out of countries such as the United States and the overly government run and overly interventionist approaches of many of the European countries. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is a wonderful scheme to provide for all the population access to essential, and in many cases life saving drugs. But it is also a scheme which is, if not maintained on, or put on a sustainable basis will, as time goes by, become increasingly less affordable for our community and therefore some of the drugs and some of the products that might be in future available under that scheme will come under future pressure.
I mention these things to try and share with you the balance that needs to be struck between on the one hand expanding benefits where there is justice in the case for the expansion of those benefits, yet on the other hand ensuring that universally available benefits and support mechanisms are kept on an effectively and economically sustainable basis. We cannot achieve the expansion of necessary benefits into new areas or the enhancement of existing benefits where there is a need to enhance them while at the same time having an open ended approach to the availability of certain things for the entire community. In the end the limitations placed upon any government as to the availability of resources is going to dictate that some of those choices will need to be made.
While those things are not directly and narrowly relevant to the carer community, they are certainly relevant to all of us who must in different ways make a contribution to ensuring that as the demography of our country alters we can afford to provide appropriate support mechanisms and benefits for an ageing population. We continue to ensure that the burden of financing those benefits does not fall too heavily through unacceptably high levels of taxation on the working age population and that we provide proper recognition for the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of Australia who in different ways provide care, not only for their loved family members, but for others in the community.
They are, Madam President, some of the considerations that the Government brings to these issues. I know that your organisation has been in very constant dialogue and contact with members of the Government, with Kevin Andrews who is the Minister having particular responsibility with Amanda Vanstone and I know with my own office. And I want to particularly in the context of the advocacy of carers interests, I want to say that National Family Carers voice has recently been established to provide the Government with advice on how we can better address family carer issues. The National Family Carers voice will gather information about the nature, the location and the circumstances of family carers and will provide the Government with advice and options over the next two years for addressing the longer term needs of these very important people. And finally in that context I want to warmly welcome Mrs Judy Brewer Fisher, the new chairman of the National Family Carers voice, as a carer she will bring a wealth of experience to the position and I';m very confident that through her leadership the National Family Carers voice will work with other organisations such as Carers Australia to make a practical and real difference in this area.
Ladies and gentlemen, in declaring this conference open I want to thank you for the opportunity of sharing some thoughts with you this morning, the Government does very sincerely respect and understand and admire the contribution of carers. I don';t say that in any sense of being patronising, I don';t say that in any sense of taking anything for granted, I mean it very genuinely. No government can ever repay to people who care for others the full measure of the contribution they make to the happiness of those people they care for, or the full measure of the contribution they make to taking the financial burden off the community, no government can do that, but it is important that the leader of government from time to time publicly thanks and recognises people for the contribution they make and also assures you that consistent with all of the other calls upon government and the responsibilities governments have that we will endeavour to do fairness and justice and over time where we can adjust benefits and adjust levels of support for carers within our community. You are part of the great Australian experience, you make an enormous contribution to the essential fairness and decency and compassion of the australian community and that is something I acknowledge and I very warmly respect and welcome and I have very great pleasure in declaring your conference open.
Thank you.
[ends]