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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (27 October) . . Page.. 2310 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

Research shows that, at the end of their care-giving, carers - two-thirds of whom are women - will probably be unemployable, will have had many years of enforced poverty and will have no assets for the future. Given the cash-strapped state of our respite care services, my constituent could well be contributing to the cost if the money is available. But this is another illustration of the often unacknowledged sacrifices that carers such as this woman make every day. There is too little recognition of the huge savings made to the community because of the unpaid work of carers. Remember, only 10 per cent of assistance is provided by home and community care services; the rest comes - or, in some cases, does not come - from carers. Conservative estimates put savings to the Australian community at $16m per annum, but there has not been a proper recognition of these savings and a consequent redistribution of the money saved.

Projected changes to the demographic profile of the ACT show an increase in the next 10 years in the number of those over 60. At the same time we have a change in our culture, where more and more women are entering the work force and are expecting to be able to stay in it. These expectations will result in increased lobbying for services for carers and for those for whom they care, and will put even more pressure on groups within our community such as the Carers Association, which has continued to grow in membership and services offered through its five years of existence.

This is Carers Week. With others, I wish to acknowledge the wonderful work carers do and also to put on notice the issue that we as a community and I as a member of this Assembly have to increase the recognition and support they are given in all aspects of their lives.

MR CORBELL (5.09): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I rise in the adjournment debate to raise an issue of concern to many of my constituents living in the northern part of the electorate of Molonglo, in the area of Gungahlin. It is an issue that I have continually raised in this place and outside this place since being elected to the Assembly and it is certainly not an issue I intend to stop raising now. I refer to the lack of effective transport links for Gungahlin residents.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I was prompted to rise in this debate this afternoon by a car accident which occurred at the intersection of Kosciuszko Avenue and Gungahlin Drive in Palmerston. It was the third accident on this area of road in the past six to eight months. It is concerning that all these accidents are occurring for similar reasons. They seem to be occurring because of the narrowness of the road, because of the lack of opportunity on the road for overtaking safely and passing other vehicles safely, because of the level of congestion on the road and obviously because of the lack of a dual carriageway for that important arterial main road.

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