Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I go on to describe measures that would genuinely provide incentives for single mothers to move from welfare to work, put yourself in the situation—if some of the government MPs could do this—of poor single mothers, many of whom have been brutalised by their partner, who are trying to bring up children. They are told by this government that from 1 July and from when their youngest child turns eight they will go from the sole parent pension, losing $29 a week as they go to the Newstart allowance, get activity tested every week and then have large disincentives, big obstacles, to move from welfare to work put in their way. Put yourself in their situation and say: ‘How can I get out of this horrible situation that the government is putting me in? I know: have another baby. That will put the whole issue off for another eight years.’ So let us understand that this government’s legislation specifically has the effect of strongly encouraging poor single mothers to have more children.

If that is the government’s social policy agenda, fine—stand up in this place and say the government’s response to the problem of the ageing population is to encourage poor single mothers to have more children, to perpetuate the cycle of dependency in order to stop the situation where those women are effectively punished for moving from welfare to work. In addition to the disincentives for those mothers to move from welfare to work, if they have a baby not only do they put the problem off for another eight years but also they pick up a $4,000 baby bonus. That is why I say you could not conceive of a set of measures more calculated to keep poor single mothers on welfare all through their baby-bearing lives, continuing to have babies and then creating and perpetuating the cycle of dependency and the cycle of despair. What the government should have done is give poor single mothers some genuine incentive to move from welfare to work and a capacity to do so by offering them proper education support.

Here is yet another chapter in the saga. When they do move and when they are required to move from the sole parent pension to Newstart, eligibility for the education and training support programs is less. It is weakened, not strengthened. So the government is effectively saying it does not want, and will not support, the training of poor single mothers to improve their workforce skills and to create not only an incentive to move from welfare to work but a capacity to do so. OECD analysis shows that one obstacle that can be removed for mothers moving from welfare to work, which would produce greater participation and help them and help us combat the problem of the ageing population, is to improve child-care benefits. The government did announce some measures on Tuesday night which slightly improve for a limited period of time—

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