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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-13 Daily Xml
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Family-Based Carers

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. How is the government assisting carers with the day-to-day costs of caring for a child or young person?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:44): I thank the member for his question and for his ongoing interest in how we can best support carers and families to ensure that the support given reflects the role and the cost of caring. As I often speak about in this place, carers are incredible. I say thank you to every single one of them, and I recognise and appreciate the extremely important role that they play in the child protection and family support system and acknowledge the many complexities that can be involved in providing care for a child.

Our government acknowledges that family-based care is a vital placement option for children and young people in care. Carers are crucial in keeping children and young people safe and giving them a home environment that nurtures, loves and supports them to thrive and to grow. Through numerous round tables, forums and conversations with carers across the state, I have learned more and more about carers' generosity, their commitment and also their needs, and I am really proud that our government is listening and acting on carers' calls for increased support as part of our strong investment in the child protection and family support system.

I am really proud that in recognising the needs of carers our government has announced $32.1 million over four years to increase carer payments from 1 July 2023. This increase sees a 4.8 per cent boost to all carer payments to assist with cost-of-living pressures, plus an extra $50 per fortnight for general foster and kinship carers for each child or young person in their care under the age of 16 years.

These increases to carer payments directly and rightly respond to a recommendation of Dr Fiona Arney's report of the Independent Inquiry into Foster and Kinship Care to better reflect the true cost of caring. Dr Fiona Arney's inquiry received submissions from foster and kinship carers, from carer representative groups, from service providers, academics and practitioners, about their experiences and their ideas for improvements to the way in which carers are supported to care for children and young people.

We have a really strong vision to work toward ensuring all children and young people in South Australia have the best opportunity to grow up safe, loved and cared for. To begin to progress that vision, we know that there are pressing challenges that must be met. This additional financial support will help to address need.

In recognising the complexities of caregiving and in honouring the generous way in which carers nurture children, opening their hearts and homes to them, it is imperative that our government listens to their experience and their knowledge and acts upon their calls for increased support. Mr Speaker, we are. To ensure we hear from carers and are able to learn from their experiences, an additional $800,000 was also committed over four years in the last budget to provide for an even stronger carer voice. As I spoke about in this place last sitting week, we are also establishing and providing support for the new Carer Council.

This additional funding for carer payments sits within the $216 million boost for the state's child protection and family support system that will be further outlined in this week's budget. At the core of this additional investment are children and a focus on effective interventions to support and strengthen families and carers to provide the best chance for children to grow up safe and strong in family, community and culture.

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