Foster carers
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, Minister for Child Protection and Family Services) (13:40): Thank you, Dr Bach, for your question. It is good to be able to continue to discuss these issues of foster care with you. I am obviously not here to make any announcements today, but I think we can all agree that the foster carers in our community very much take on a role that we all support them doing for the most vulnerable children in our community. It is absolutely true to say that foster carers need our support, and we continue to provide them with that support. We continue to provide them with allowances, allowances which can be scaled up in relation to the complex needs of the children. Foster carers are paid an allowance. We all agree that foster carers do an amazing job, and there is, I am sure, always more that we can do to support them. We look forward to continuing to work with you, as you indicated you were keen to do over Christmas, to achieve those outcomes.
Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:41): I pick up the minister’s final comments. When she is in a position to make a decision about upping the carer allowance, she will have my full support. I appreciate what the minister said: that she is not here to make an announcement on this matter today. I will ask the minister: can you provide a date, even a broad time line, by which you will be in a position to make a decision about the carer allowance?
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, Minister for Child Protection and Family Services) (13:41): Dr Bach, thank you again for your question. I do look forward to continuing to work with you, and I am pleased that you continue to acknowledge that foster carers in our community provide an invaluable service for the most vulnerable children in our community. These people are truly saints in the modern-day sense of the term. They are people who go above and beyond providing care and services for the most vulnerable children, giving them some stability in their lives when often there has been very little until that point. We continue to want to work with you as a government. As a Parliament I am sure we all want to work together to ensure that we continue to provide both for the most vulnerable in our community and also for those who support and look after the most vulnerable in the community. Decisions in relation to funding are obviously government decisions, and they will be debated by government in the usual way, but I am glad that we have your support to continue to work to improve the lives of the most vulnerable.