Who cares about carers? Kevin Rudd?

More than 100,000 carer allowance recipients are over 65-years-old. These pensioners are struggling under the weight of increased rent or house repayments, food, medical and other daily costs associated with living on subsistence pension payments, like many other low income Australians. However, the extra cost burden faced for accommodation and providing care to loved ones with dependent disabilities comes on top of this struggle.

Picture this: what if your child was born with a profound disability, like my daughter who has Congenital Rubella syndrome from the “German measles” virus. What would you do? What if she was profoundly deaf, legally blind, diabetic, apraxic, incontinent and totally dependent for all her daily needs: what would you do?

What if it cost $100,000 a year for government to provide her with the necessary care outside your home: what would you do? What if the only income support the government gave you for caring for her at home, 24-7-52, was $50 a week: what would you do?

What if you were now an aged pensioner, your daughter was 38-years-old and you had cared for her all her life, then the government of the day said “we are taking away your $600 carer allowance bonus”: what then?

Many thousands of families care for people, like my daughter, who cost more to support than the disability pension income every year because of high support needs. Just as an example: we need new washing machines and dryers far more often because of the quantities of soiled linen and clothes. The wear and tear on linen means it wears out three times more quickly and needs replacing three times more often. Aides and equipment always cost more than the government is willing to pay.

Our rents, rates and living costs increase along with all these extra demands. Let’s get real on the full cost of caring and talk about missed opportunity costs - because carers like myself are bound to constant care demands and use our own pathetic carer/disability/aged pension to cover all the shortfalls.

Collectively, caring families contribute more than $ 36 billion to the national economy every year on saved out-of-home care costs. The cost to our health and wellbeing is too high a price to pay, yet families continue to be exploited to the maximum by callous and uncaring governments which rely upon our deep compassion and love for our kin to ensure we will continue indefinitely.

This is what Mr Rudd promised pre-election: he promised to review legislation to ensure carers had legislated recognition and rights. He promised to fix the broken Commonwealth, State and Territories Disability Agreement. He promised to introduce population based benchmark funding to disability services (something aged care has had for decades).

Mr Rudd is quoted as saying “we will look after carers”, but if he is not now willing to allay the fears of carers over these bonus payments what is it we can expect from this government? He promises to be family friendly and caring but is not even willing to stop the antagonism, mistrust and clearly defined stress evident in his failure to tell caring families what he will do to support them if the bonus payments are to go.

For a new government this “out cry” from caring families is a black blot on an otherwise warm honeymoon for his government. Attacking the weakest, most vulnerable, and highly significant caring family minority is despicable and will have lasting consequences at the ballot box.

If carers are forced to relinquish care to enter the paid work force or to make ends meet, there will be a $36 billion black hole in the economy. None of this makes any sense.

Carers from the wholly voluntary National Carers Coalition took up Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan’s invitation to make a submission to the May Budget for a funded national disability family advocacy network. If Mr Rudd or anyone else had given us this level playing field with the funded services and disability person advocacy sectors, he would have clearly understood from the grass roots of caring, just what harm is being done to the good will of this much maligned sector and undervalued lower class of our society.