Minority Report by Australian Greens
The Australian Greens believe that support for carers in
Australia needs to be considerably improved and therefore support the intent of
this Bill, However, we remained concerned that a number of outstanding issues
were raised during the committee inquiry, and believe the Bill. should be
further amended to ensure it better meet the needs of carers.
We acknowledge that the majority report articulated a number
of the issues that were raised in submissions and by witnesses to the inquiry ,
but we are concerned the report failed to recommend legislative amendments to
address these shortcomings.
Disability Care Load Assessment (Child)
The Greens are concerned that peak carer organisations were
not consulted in the development of the Disability Care Load Assessment (child)
Assessment Tool. We are pleased to see that the draft of this assessment tool
has now been publicly released, and we will be consulting peak organisations
before making a final decision on this disallowable instrument.
Despite the recent release of the assessment tool, the
inquiry raised a number of concerns with issues affecting its efficacy, such as
psychological and emotional impacts on carers, geographical location, access to
support services, changing care needs over time, and access to aids and
equipment. The Australian Greens remain concerned that these important issues
are not adequately considered in the assessment process, and believe that it
would be worthwhile for the Government to consider how to address these
oversights in assessment process before tabling the assessment tool.
The Greens are also concerned about the transition from
Carer Payment (child) to Carer Payment (adult), and support calls from a number
of witnesses and advocates for there to be better consistency and a smoother
transition between the two payment and support systems.
Episodic Care
The Greens support calls for the provisions in the Bill to be
extended to carers of adults with mental illness, as the episodic nature of
mental illness makes it very difficult for carers to cope under the existing
conditions of income support.
We also support the call from Carers Victoriafor the
qualification period for episodic care to remain open for two years.
Exchange Care
The Greens are particularly concerned that this provision
does not effectively provide for carers of a single child. Parents sharing care
of a single child find it extremely difficult to find jobs that provide them
with the flexibility to care for a child with intense needs. We do not believe
that Centrelink can provide other assistance (as suggested by FaHSCIA's in
evidence to the inquiry) when under the Welfare to Work regime only one parent
can be determined as the Principle Carer. This effectively means that separated
parents of a single child will not both be able to access carer payment, which
contradicts the intent of the Family Law Act to provide for shared care.
Hospital
The Greens strongly support the provisions removing the
suspension of carer payment if a child is hospitalised for more than 63 days.
However, we believe that this provision should be extended to carers of adults
as well.
Recommendations
The Bill be amended to:
-
Align Carer Payment (adult) assessment to Carer Payment
(child) assessment
-
Extend episodic care provisions to carers of adults with
mental illness
-
Enable qualification period for episodic and short term care
to remain open for two years
-
Allow exchange care provisions to be made available for carers
of a single child
-
Extend provisions removing the suspension of carer payment if
a child is hospitalised for more than 63 days to carers of adults.
Senator Rachel Siewert
Australian Greens
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