Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, has released a report that suggests 11 areas of reform that will value unpaid caring in Australia and remove what she said was the lifelong disadvantage experienced by many people who care.
Launching the Commission’s Investing in care: Recognising and valuing those who care report in Sydney, Commissioner Broderick said that the majority of caring in the community was undertaken by women and that the current superannuation, taxation and employment systems severely disadvantaged them. “People who make the valuable contribution and personal sacrifices of caring for parents, in-laws, children, grand-children and others in our community with disability, chronic illness or frailty due to old age are penalised by a system that does not recognise this invaluable personal and socio-economic contribution,” Commissioner Broderick said.
The Commissioner said the failure of the superannuation and taxation systems, alone, to “recognise this contribution and provide a value for this unpaid work means that carers – mostly women – who have had long and repeated absences from paid employment, find they have negligible retirement savings and indeed, often retire in poverty”. Commissioner Broderick said the Investing in care report was intended as a discussion paper that would kickstart consideration of potential policy reforms in Australia.
Source: Australian Human Rights Commission media release, 31 January 2013
[LTN 22, 4/2/13]