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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 238 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 16 June 2021 by Dr K. Stratton

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

GRANDCARERS

238. Dr K. STRATTON to the Minister for Community Services:

I refer to the important work of grandparent carers, particularly those who take on the informal role of caring full-time for children who cannot safely live with their parents, usually due to substance use, mental health issues, incarceration or domestic violence.

(1) Can the minister outline to the house the research undertaken by Wanslea Ltd with regard to grandparents who are raising their grandchildren full-time?

(2) Can the minister update the house on the efforts of the McGowan Labor government in supporting the work of these incredible Western Australians?

Ms S.F. McGURK replied:

(1)–(2) I thank the member for the question and particularly for her expertise and advocacy on behalf of grandcarers in this state. I know that there are other members in this chamber who have worked very closely with grandcarers in their electorate. I can look around the chamber and I know that people are connected with not only grandcarers in their electorate, as I said, but also their peak bodies. It is important work. It is important because we need to understand that these grandcarers step up in very difficult circumstances to look after their grandchildren, often when their own children have either passed away, but more usually because they are facing some sort of adversity that means that grandcarers have to step in.

It is a huge challenge. They are not in the formal child protection system, so they do not get the extent of support that formal foster carers or kinship carers receive. With that comes some autonomy on the part of the grandcarers, but it also has challenges. I know that in the member's work at Wanslea before coming into Parliament she helped advocate for and properly understands what is going on with grandcarers. The challenge, which I know that people here who have been in contact with grandcarers will understand, is that those grandcarers are responsible for the full-time care of their grandchildren. They are taking those grandchildren to school and they are supervising homework. They are feeding and clothing them, but they are also worrying about those grandchildren. They are doing that in the face of their own ageing and changing health needs, and they are often, as I said, dealing with the original family conflict or the reasons why those children have come into their care.

The work that the member helped undertake at Wanslea is important. That resulted in a report entitled A fairer future for grandchildren: Understanding the impact of the caring role on grandparents raising their grandchildren. It was a piece of work done in partnership with Wanslea, Curtin University and Edith Cowan University, and with the support of Lotterywest, which we are very grateful for. I know that the member was a key researcher and architect of this report. The report involved 622 survey participants, 24 key stakeholder interviews, focus groups and a desktop review of policy documents. It found that two-thirds of the grandparent carers surveyed live below the poverty line. In fact, two-thirds of them would not be able to raise $2 000 in a week for an emergency, half of them would have trouble paying their utility bills on time and one-third had pawned or sold something in order to pay for goods, so it really is quite challenging.

I want to assure the chamber and anyone listening that the state government understands those challenges and is working to fund Wanslea to provide practical support. As part of its recovery plan, of course, the government made a cash payment to grandcarers of $500 for the first child and $250 for each child after that. Our election commitments included a commitment to adjust the annual payment to grandcarers. Some means testing will be applied, but most grandcarers will be eligible for $1 000 for each child in their care as a complete payment, so it is significant. Of course, this is also a federal issue and is about making sure that grandcarers are eligible for any family support benefits that parents would usually be eligible for. It can also be very frustrating for grandcarers when they come up against doctors or other authorities, so we are working on getting proper recognition for their role as grandcarers.

A number of grandcarers spoke at the launch last week. Dianne Franklin was one of them. She talked about the stress of having her retirement interrupted, what it had meant to her retirement savings, the challenges that she faced and the love that she feels for her grandchild. It was a very moving story. But we were also reminded of the mettle of some of these grandcarers. On top of all the ongoing challenges that she has had in the past, Dianne talked about how her granddaughter, who is coming up to her teenage years, asked whether she could get a mobile phone. Dianne said, ''No, you can't get a mobile phone.'' Her granddaughter then asked, ''How old will I have to be to get a mobile phone?'' to which Dianne said, ''When you're about 40''!

The SPEAKER: The member for Vasse with the last question.