Submission to the Senate Committee on Work and Care for consideration as part of the inquiry into the recognition of unpaid carers | October 2023

One year on, the Albanese government has done nothing to meaningfully improve the situation of unpaid carers or the people they care for. We are angered by the lack of progress, frustrated with the strain endless and inaccessible consultation places on people whose voices most need to be heard. Our work as unpaid activists is advocacy, but it is also care. We do this care labour to create a better world and in solidarity with people like ourselves who suffer the harms of state violence and other forms of physical, social and economic violence.

In our submission we show that the understanding of unpaid care must be recast, no longer
narrowly defined in a familial sense, but encompassing broader communal and individual efforts to
fill the gaps left by state failure and violence. Through our work we receive many harrowing contributions from unpaid carers living in poverty on the Carer Payment or Carer Allowance.

People on Centrelink payments and others in poverty are providing enormous amounts of care that
is not recognised by (un)employment services providers nor by the state. This ranges from caring
for friends, family and neighbours, to caring for themselves and others whose disabilities are not
recognised under rigid governmental definitions. We see the evidence and value of this every day
within our community. Care is not something we believe should be further commodified – to do so simply creates other social imbalances, breaking down effective and unrecognised forms of care in favour of marketisation.

You can read our submission in full below.