Source: The Melbourne Herald Sun [Brigid O'Connell]

TAKING elderly parents or disabled children to work may be the way of the future as Victoria looks at how to cope with an expected boom in the demand for carers, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.

The Better Care for our Carers inquiry, held in Melbourne yesterday, was told carers who look after elderly or chronically ill family members needed legislated flexible work rights, a special superannuation scheme to top them up after years out of employment and bigger tax breaks.

Carers also said on-site daycare facilities for elderly parents and disabled children, would make it easier for them to stay in the workforce.

Inquiry chairwoman, federal Labor MP Annette Ellis, said while some ideas raised were "out of the box", they were all "legitimate" because the number of people caring for sick and elderly family members was tipped to rise.

The most recent ABS survey of carers in 2003, found there were more than 2.5 million carers in Australia, including 470,000 primary carers.

But the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare expects more than 600,000 people will be primary carers for elderly, ill or disabled family members by 2012, with 70 per cent of such carers to be women.

Carers Victoria chief executive Maria Bohan said carers typically suffered poor health and financial instability, struggled to hold down a job, were isolated and received little government support.

"This is the biggest issue facing Australia and there needs to be a big systemic change," Ms Bohan said.

"We need to help employers think laterally about how to support carers by giving them things like 12 months' leave, being flexible with work hours and larger employers can look at what they can do on-site to support staff juggling these roles."

ACTU industrial officer Belinda Tkalcevic said the council told the inquiry it made financial sense for employers and government to help carers stay in the workforce.

"It was once a held view that women would give up their careers to be the carer, but they've invested so much into their careers and education that now they want to work and we need ways to help them keep working," she said.

"If you added up the cost of the work these unpaid carers do, it would cost Australia more than $30 billion a year."

Hearings have been held in Sydney and Perth and are to be held in Adelaide and Brisbane and the commitee will report early next year.