Source: The Sydney Morning Herald [Letters to the Editor]

If this isn't a grab for votes, I don't know what is ("$1000 bonus for carers", June 28). Why can't governments see that the plight of carers can be eased only by policies that guarantee long-term supported accommodation for intellectually disabled adults.

Or perhaps they can see the need, but can't afford the solution. Instead they choose to use our situation to try to win votes by hitting the old chestnut - the hip-pocket nerve.

The $1000 will not buy my sanity, nor will it buy my vote. Be warned, Mr Howard. I live in Bennelong.

Jenny Rollo Putney

Plugging the gaps in the crisis left by both the states' and Commonwealth's refusal to be responsible for disability services is no answer: the holes are too big for Band-Aids.

Caring families demand the implementation of population-based benchmarks for disability funding. The Federal Government does it for aged care, child care and education. It is the only answer to the problem of cost shifting across all levels of government.

If the Federal Government took responsibility for accommodation and respite, and the states and territories provided all other services, with the same population benchmarks built in, the system would work.

Nell Brown National Carers Coalition