Did you see 4
Corners on the ABC last Monday night? It was about the plight of
the grief stricken carers and the burden they carry looking
after their disabled loved ones. What a bunch of whingers? I
mean, lets do a reality check here. But first some facts, drawn
from the most recent federal budget.
According the
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and
Indigenous Affairs, there are 483,550 people in Australia who
are cared for by someone in their immediate family or who
qualifies as someone needing care. There are only 439,600 people
who actually receive a carer’s payment. That means there is a
shortfall in the carer’s workforce of 43,950. In other words,
there is a real skills shortage in the home based carer’s
‘industry’. I will return to this later.
In the 4 Corners
program there was very little reference to the captains of
industry who, if we believe the media, government spokespeople
and other spin, are the real drivers of the Australian economy.
These hard workers survive in a very competitive market. There
are few who can do what they do, increase wealth like they do
and who sacrifice so much for our economy. But do we hear them
whinge? No! Of course not. They get lobbyists to do that for
them. Lets have a look at the real differences between what
carers have to do and what our CEO’s have to put up with.
Firstly, lets look at the benefits each enjoys.
How many CEO’s
get to spend the whole day, every day with those they love? I
would think none. They don’t have the opportunity to slack
around the house in their pyjamas and grab a coffee whenever
they feel like it. Our hard working CEOs are woken by reminder
calls at 5:00am and have to get out of bed and take a shower,
dress in their suit and make their way downstairs to where the
cook has prepared breakfast for them. At 6:10 their chauffer
picks them up and drives them to the airport where they are met
by their PA who escorts them to the Flight Club. After checking
their emails, they board the plane and take their seat in First
Class. The first contact they have with their family is when the
nanny sends them an email, via her Blackberry. When the CEO
arrives at his destination he is met by a limousine and ferried
to his first meeting. By the end of the day he has had four
fifty minute meetings, lunched at the most exclusive restaurant
in town, been helicoptered to at least one meeting and is now
reclining in First Class sipping on a scotch. By the time he
gets home his children will be in bed and his wife will probably
not get home from her fundraising meeting until after he is
asleep. Given that this is only Monday, he probably won’t see
the tin lids and the missus until Sunday, the week after next,
as he is due to fly to London tomorrow to close a new deal. And
he does all this for a measly million dollars a year plus $20
million in share options as compensation. Now let’s look at the
carer.
She too is up at
5:00am looking for the intubation tube because little Freddy
seems to be fitting again. All the noise he causes wakes her
husband whose first response is to shout for her to close the
door to Freddy’s room. By 6:00am she has had her first coffee
and her daughter is up watching the tele because she has learnt
that mum is not at her best before school. Hubby is up and
getting ready for work but remains silent as usual. She makes
sure his lunch is packed and his soup in the thermos – with the
lid on tight (he blew his stack when it leaked all over the ute
floor yesterday). At 7:00am she puts a bowl of corn flakes
before her daughter, kisses her on the cheek and wishes her well
at the school sports day. She does this because for the next two
hours she will be bathing, changing pressure sore bandages and
feeding her son. At 14 he’s getting heavier to lift and she
reminds herself that she must make an appointment with the
masseur. At 10:00am she is still in her pj’s as she puts out the
daily washing. “At least the sun is shining.” She thinks to
herself. By the time her daughter gets home from school at
4:00pm she has had to change out of her pj’s as Freddy had one
of his projectile vomiting attacks and she, along with what
seemed half his room, was plastered with the sticky, smelly
contents of his stomach. Hubby gets home at 6:00pm and sits down
to his dinner. He seems chatty and she realises that he must
want sex because that’s the only time he asks her how her day
was. And, because she loves them, she is content with the $50.00
a week carer allowance.
Now, having
established the facts, who would you rather be? Easy isn’t it.
The carer. You’re home all day, get to see your family when they
get up, get to be with them when they go to bed and best of all
you don’t have to get out of your pj’s until someone throws up
on you. Other benefits include not having to travel, being able
to instantly fix any problems around the house and being able to
enjoy the sunshine rather than being stuck inside climate
controlled conference rooms all day. OK, you have to forego the
big dollars, but surely being able to spend every waking minute
with those you love is priceless.
I mentioned
earlier that there are 43,950 people who need caring for and
whose carers don’t receive the carer’s allowance. This means
they are scabbing off the rest of the carers and putting them
out of work. In a market where there is a shortfall in workers
for a particular industry, the wages of those in that industry
rise. Its simple demand and supply economics. Its how the CEOs
work. There are more businesses that are willing to pay them
multimillion dollar compensation packages than there are CEOs.
So, naturally, they have a closed shop and ensure their
compensation deals are lucrative and huge. I suggest the carers
take the same approach and get off their high horses and stop
expecting tax payers to give a toss.
Firstly, the
carers need to organise. They need to “out” the scabs who are
preventing them from progressing up the corporate ladder. The 40
odd thousand who aren’t part of their collective are making them
look bad. This group are doing it for nothing. Imagine what
would occur if CEOs suddenly decided that they would work for
nothing! Or even worse, take a pay cut! The carers should write
to the government and ask that a special task force be
established to root out these bludgers and get them on the $50 a
week allowance immediately.
Once they have
achieved that, they need to hold a convention in which they
invite high profile celebrities to run workshops on how to
retain your beauty when you’re starring in a period piece set in
the grimy 11th century. After the convention they can
take their butcher paper notes and produce a glossy booklet on
the jobs they do and how they can still look good even if
they’re covered in something resembling the contents of a pigs
stomach. Finally, they should engage a high profile PR firm to
sell their message to the rest of us. It could be along the
lines of “look what we can do for love … and save the rest of
you a fortune”.
I also think
it’s about time the carers recognised that most CEO’s sacrifice
more if not as little as they do. Besides, it’s not a
competition. Just like the CEO’s the carers have chosen their
lot. They could have paid a high priced lawyer to relieve them
of their contract and taken up a new opportunity. Instead they
chose to stay. I say to the carers, stop your whinging and get a
life. You don’t know how well off you are. Besides, not only are
you saving us money, you are ensuring that the grief you
constantly feel doesn’t interfere with your or our CEO’s
productivity.
(Shane has a son
with a disability and is a long time advocate for carers).