18 October 2006
Carers unheralded work provides enormous contribution to Australian society
Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination Pru Goward said recent national consultations for her current project "Striking the Balance: Women, Men, Work and Family" had confirmed that family carers are the quiet heroes in our community, whose unheralded work provides an enormous contribution to Australian society.
"Everywhere we went, we heard amazing stories about the contributions carers make, often at great personal cost. We repeatedly heard the income inequality that carers experience and their reliance on government income assistance to get by," said Ms Goward.
Speaking on this year"s Carers Week (15-21 October), Commissioner Goward paid tribute to the 2.6 million carers in Australia who provide unpaid help and assistance to family members, a relative or friend, who could not otherwise manage because of disability, mental illness, chronic condition or frailty.
"Carers Week is an opportune time to recognise the important social and economic value that carers play in the community. A report released last year by Access Economics titled "The economic value of informal care" showedapproximately 1.2 billion hours of informal care are currently provided by family carers," Commissioner Goward said.
"The free, informal contribution saves taxpayers an enormous amount of money annually. The Access Economics report showed if the care provided by carers in the home was replaced with services purchased from formal care providers the cost would be over $30 billion annually.
"Women in Australia do 70 per cent of the unpaid caring work, while men do 70 per cent of the paid work. The pressures on people to care more, not less, are certainly emerging exactly at the same time as there is pressure on people to work more, not less."
The theme for this year"s Carers Week, "Anyone, Anytime", highlights the fact that almost everyone will provide care at some time during their life; whether to a husband, wife, parent, son or daughter, relative, neighbour or friend.
"There are 500,000 primary carers in Australia who provide the most care to aged people or those with disability. In most cases these carers don"t have any qualifications or expertise other than love and compassion," Ms Goward said.
"All levels of government, the business community, and all areas of society need to consider adopting carer-friendly work practices and support the needs of carers to assist their efforts and ease the pressures on them."
Media contact: Paul Oliver (02) 9284 9880 or 0408 469 347
Last updated 28 September, 2006
