E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: National Carers Strategy.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: I am so pleased to be here today to launch the Commonwealth's new National Carer Strategy, a ten-year policy framework to make sure that our unpaid carers are recognised, valued and supported. This is a 10-year policy document, but it has an associated Action Plan underneath it, which commits the Government to immediate actions as well as long-term reform. Some of the immediate actions came directly from carers themselves. The first action is to increase the number of counselling sessions for carers by an extra 10,000. We know there was a waitlist for these counselling sessions, so I'm so glad that we've been able to fund the additional sessions per year. In addition, the Carer Gateway is a very important resource that many carers access, but it's only available often from 9 to 5, and so we've committed today to extending the flexibility of those hours to make sure people can access the support when they need it. Another very concrete action that we have heard about is the importance of peer support, speaking with someone that knows you and understands what you're going through and can give you lived experience, help and advice. And so today, we're committing to an increase of that peer support so that there can be more peer support around the country. And we will be extending the Young Bursary Program as well. The Young Carers Bursary Program is important financial assistance to those carers that need a little extra financial help, and so this program was due to end, I'm very, very pleased that we're able to extend it. They are some of the concrete actions that we are taking that build on some of the other measures that we've undertaken, like making Carers Payment more flexible to allow for work and study, and also the Carer Inclusive Workplace Initiative, which has been about supporting workplaces to better balance, to help their employees balance their care and caring responsibilities. But finally, this Strategy was not done by the Government. This was a strategy that was co-led by carers themselves, and I'm so glad to be joined with Meredith and Phil. Both carers, but both were on our Advisory Committee that really improved this strategy to ensure that it connected with carers. Meredith was the Co-Chair, and Phil contributed significantly to the Advisory Committee. Their input, their consultation, their guidance, was so critical to getting this document right. And I would like to sincerely thank them and all the Advisory Committee, along with the carers right around Australia that ensured that they gave us input and they gave us important information to make this a stronger document. So I'm now going to ask both of them to speak about their role and thank them very much for the work they've done.
MERIDITH COOTE, CO-CHAIR OF THE NATIONAL CARERS STRATEGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Thank you, Amanda. I’m Meredith, I'm a carer for a young person, and also I've worked in the sector for 39 years, so I've witnessed a lot of caring experiences. So the benefit of this advisory committee was the extraordinary experience of the amazing diversity of carers across the country, and older people, young people, the people that they cared for, coming very different cohort. And so the benefit was that we obviously bring our own experience, but also we bring the witnessing of other people's experiences to learn and to listen to what other carers need. So as the Minister said, what we really heard was people needed to be more recognised and valued in their roles, and what that meant was that they needed support. They didn't require that support more easily. They needed the government departments to work together better so that they didn't have to retell their story, and they needed some employment and financial assistance. So the Carer Inclusive Workplace is a really important part of this. When people care, they actually can't work as much, and that just seems like it affects carers. But when you lose financial stability and security, then that also impacts on the person that you’re caring for, so their medical help and their medication and housing and all of those things start to be affected. So this Strategy will bring opportunity for us all to come together. We will all be carer for at some point, and we'll have to care for someone. So the strategy is an amazing pathway to start that Action Plan so we can start making a difference. So we recognise the people around us, people that we work with, and our neighbours and each other, and we start to help each other more and bring the strategy to life.
PHILIP MARTIN, MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL CARERS STRATEGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Good morning, my name is Phil. I'm a carer, and I’ve also been an individual member of the Advisory Committee. I'd like to thank the Minister. This Strategy today is a fantastic building block, building on past experiences, building on a wealth of input from thousands of carers and agencies. What we've heard is honesty around challenges successes, and what we believe we've come up with is a plan to help ensure that people are getting better services, more services delivered more flexibly across more outlets across the country, whilst also respecting the challenges. They're quite different across metropolitans, regional, rural and remote communities, intersection with First Nations, young carers, LGBTQI+, veterans, people with disabilities and aged care. It's a very complex range of supports. The Carer Gateway providers have been fantastic at building the first blocks. We know that there are some challenges in what they're doing. We’ve recognised those and we welcome the opportunity for more counselling, more peer support and more access across 24/7 core emergency services. I congratulate the carers who were so honest in their feedback and so willing to tell us their true stories and to share with us what's working so we can build on them. The Committee have finalised in conjunction with the Department an Action Plan, and the next step will be putting some time frames, some very short time frames, and some longer time frames. And as the Minister has said, we believe we can get some very quick results in terms of immediate support for more flexible services. Things like the Carer Recognition Act will clearly take us a lot longer, but the impetus is there, the willingness is there, and we believe that overall, this provides a fantastic building block for better supports to Australia’s unpaid carers who do a fantastic job in supporting the economy and keeping the person they care for in the best possible position. Congratulations, Minister. I congratulate the Department. They've been fantastic and responsive to what we've needed. And I'd like to finish by congratulating Meredith and the colleagues on the Committee who have so willingly given their time and travelled from around the country to hear from carers, but most importantly, to the unpaid carers themselves, who have, thousands of them, have come forward and told us their story, which means we can do the work.
JOURNALIST: Just a quick one. How important is this for carers like yourself across Australia?
PHILIP MARTIN: I feel that the ten-year Strategy is critical in taking on board the diverse needs across multiple groups, and the diverse needs across metropolitan, regional, rural and remote. Each have unique challenges and successes, and I think what we've produced lays the bases to respond to those needs individually and collectively over the coming initial 3 years and over the 10-year period.
JOURNALIST: Amanda, questions towards you, how much of the $907 million that was allocated towards in the budget for the disability services, how much of it has been has gone towards this Strategy to provide those supports and counselling?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: We invest a huge amount of money into different programs. This announcement today is in we invest a huge amount of money into different programs. This announcement today is in addition to the funding that we provide to Carer Gateway and in addition to the budget measures that were in the May Budget. So this is all about investing more, but not just investing more in things that are not requested by carers. The actions we're taking today were requested by carers and build on the work that we've already done.
JOURNALIST: How much more, though, have you invested?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: We can give you the breakdown on what the investment is, but when we look at it, there's an extra 10,000 counselling sessions. That is in response to the demand. The extra funding for peer support is in response to the demand for more peer support. So this is funding and new programs that support people, because that's what they've asked for.
JOURNALIST: And are you confident that with increase, I guess, more carers, more carer roles coming up in the coming years, with older population? Are you confident that the strategy will work going into the, I guess, five to ten years?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well Look, I think there is a number of reasons this strategy is really important. Yes, we're having an aging population, and so making sure that our unpaid carers are provided with the support to support their loved ones is really important. But also, I heard from carers about the importance of, as we see an increase in paid caring through aged care and through other systems, that their role is not forgotten, that their role is still valued, and that they have a better connection with these large government systems. So this is really providing a pathway forward, including some initial actions that we are taking, as well as a long-term reform process to make sure that we are responsive to not only the demographic changes that we see, but also the at the changing of the formal care arrangements in this country, it's important that our support for unpaid carers, our support for them, not just through their wellbeing and financial support, but also how they interact with government, is supported as well.