Linda Seaborn, Hobart
Following the May 10 federal budget, anyone in receipt of a parenting payment, i.e., low-income people with children, will now have to work to support themselves after their youngest child turns six.
PM John Howard's theory is that it will be "better" for children to grow up in households where a member of the family is in paid work. The obvious first benefit of this is that the children will grow up with enough family income to have a comfortable and decent life. However, there is another way to achieve this — provide reasonable income support to ensure no-one in Australia lives in poverty.
Who will benefit from the Coalition's policy? Well obviously, capital wants a decent pool of unemployed people to keep downward pressure on wages, and Australia's unemployment rate was getting a little too low (on paper anyway). Then there's the string of private businesses called the Job Network. They produce "workforce participation outcomes" and sell them to the government — I guess the supply of raw materials (unemployed people) was getting a little low.
This explains why single parents are going to be forced to jump through "participation hoops", so all the right boxes can be ticked and ensure the funding keeps coming.
There's no pressure on workplaces to create positions single mothers can actually fill — work between school hours with time off as needed for parenting responsibilities.
At the moment single mothers have the highest work-force participation of any Centrelink recipients (50% at any one time; 75% participate in the course of a year). So why is the government bringing in a punitive regime?
Under the proposals in the budget, the vast number of sole parents who combine their two jobs — parenting and income earning — by doing both part time, will now be forced to support themselves from their part-time earnings only; there will be no sole parent support. Under the Newstart regime, once they earn the huge sum of $800 per fortnight, they'll no longer be eligible for any income support or related concessions.
If their income is under that, they then face Newstart's harsh breaching regime. In the event that they are unable to meet the compliance requirements — most of which consists of jumping through meaningless hoops — they will lose some, if not all, their government income.
The government is ignoring the reality that children of all ages deserve appropriate parenting and supervision. The way to get parents back to work is to put the obligation on to employers come up with work that supports parenting. We need part-time work that provides a living wage.
For more information, or to join the campaign against the attacks on single mothers, contact:
- The National Council of Single Mothers and their Children, phone 08 8226 2505, fax 08 8226 2509, email <ncsmc@ncsmc.org.au> or visit .
- The Council of Single Mothers & their Children (CSMC) — in Victoria, phone its support line on (03) 9654 0622, or 1800 077 374, email <csmc@csmc.org.au> or visit .
- The Sole Parents'Union, email <soleparentsunion@ozemail.com.au>.
- The Council of Single Mothers and their Children (in Tasmania), phone (03) 6223 5079 or email <lindaseaborn@optusnet.com.au>
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 25, 2005.
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