Extract maiden speech: There is an unsung group of heroes working across Australia today, what we may well call our neglected people: our carers and children with disabilities. For parents caring for the physically or intellectually disabled child, it is a lifetime’s task. For most carers there are no days off. There is no sick pay. There is no holiday pay. There is no superannuation. And when carers grow old, they do so worrying about what will happen to their child when they are too old or frail to nurse them. Carers may never hear their child say the words: ‘I love you’. So it is little surprise that when parents have a disabled child the statistics show that the chance of marriage breakdown almost triples. Yet as a society we ask our carers to provide over one billion hours of unpaid work a year which, if we the taxpayers had to pick up the tab, would cost well over $30 billion. Simply, as a society we are asking our carers to do more than their fair share of the heavy lifting. To parents out there with a special needs child that believe that politicians do not know what it is like, I want you to know that you have someone who stands on the floor of this parliament that walks in your shoes. My son, Trent, was born 14 years ago with Down syndrome and autism. He has no speech. My wife and I will need to care for him our entire lives. I am proud to say that Trent is in the gallery today. I would like to take this opportunity to express my debt of gratitude to all the teachers of our special needs children, such as the teachers at Bates Drive, who have cared for Trent and the other children as they would care for their own. The special experience I have had with Trent has made me a better person. It has made me fully appreciate that each individual has a real value of their own and that the dignity of every individual must be respected. But most importantly it has awakened me to the fact that as a nation we need to do more, much more, for our children with disabilities and their carers—something that people like Tony Stevens have been fighting for all their lives. We are a wealthy and compassionate country. We must find a way, without any of the old excuses, to provide a generous and practical response to the needs of people with severe disabilities and their carers. I pledge that during my time in parliament I will be fighting to ensure that our carers and our children with special needs are provided with the resources they rightly deserve and need. Craig Kelly 2010
So what did he do about it? What did his government do about it in office? NOTHING - 12 years of nothing. Thank you Labor. Thank you Julia.
