Costs need to be sorted minus the scaremongering

Tony Ryall is scaremongering as a ruse to avoid addressing how the Government will provide payments to family caregivers of disabled adults, Labour’s Disability Issues spokesperson Clare Curran says.

In a landmark decision earlier this year the Appeal Court ruled that excluding family members from payment for the provision of disability support services was discrimination.

“At that time Mr Ryall said a new policy should be in place at the beginning of 2013, and carers could then apply to the Ministry of Health to be assessed for the number of hours they are entitled to be paid.

“He also warned that current entitlements could change to help pay for the new policy.

“Four weeks ago I wrote to Mr Ryall saying that Labour understood the difficulties inherent in resolving the issue and that we were happy to discuss co-operative and long-term solutions to it.

“However, Mr Ryall is back on his bandwagon today, using dodgy figures to scare the public into thinking paying family caregivers will cost too much.

“He quotes $400 million, whereas other estimates have put the cost at anything between $17 million and $64 million.

“Tony Ryall needs to get his figures sorted out and stop scaremongering.

“All these carers want is a fair go, recognition of their rights and reasonable recompense. These are families who need help and it’s high time they received it,” said Clare Curran.