Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a bit disappointing that the member for Murray, the previous speaker in this debate, did not mention once the 20,000 or so families that will have their family tax benefit A or B cut or reduced as a result of the bill before the House. I agree water policy is important, and that is the debate which is next on the speaking list; but this particular debate on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill (No. 2) 2015 is focused on this government's cuts and attacks on families.

Yet again, this policy has rebounded. It has boomeranged back onto the floor of this parliament. We are again debating cuts to family tax benefit part A and part B that will hurt thousands upon thousands of rural and regional families. There are 20,000 or so such families in the member for Murray's electorate; 20,000 or so in the member for Mallee's electorate; over 20,000 in the member for Wannon's electorate; and just under 20,000 in my electorate. The impact that these cuts will have on regional families cannot be underestimated, yet all we have seen from those on the government's side is either a blatant disregard for what is in this bill and they talk about other issues—important issues but not related to this bill—or they claim that the government needs to get tough and crack down on spending.

Again, this government is focused on attacking the poorest in our community—the working poor in our community, the single parents in our community, the grandparent carers in our community, the poor farmers in our community whose farms are not turning a profit—but not those in our community who are doing quite well at the other end of the income spectrum. Just to put a face to who are we talking about when it comes to the working poor, I have just one story of somebody in my electorate who will be impacted by the cuts and changes that are before the House. Helen is a hardworking dedicated mother of nine-year-old James. She and most others would have expected that she would be the last person in the world to end up depending upon charity to survive.

After struggling to find work as a chef with flexible hours to allow her to be a sole parent and raise her son, that is exactly where she found herself—at Bendigo Uniting Care asking for help. It is a hard thing to do for somebody who has worked their whole life and who has supported themselves for their whole life, only to now discover that they are struggling and need help. At one point her son's father was assisting; her son's father's parents and her parents were assisting with child care before and after school. She found that working nights as a chef and raising her son was just too hard. She said:

It just burnt me out, so I started to look for work during the day, but the rates are much lower, making it harder to survive. As work started to dry up during the day, I found that more and more of my shifts were being cut and, before I knew it, I went to Uniting Care to put my hand out for help.

Sometimes I bake muffins to take along to help other families, because it is pretty scary when you have to put your hand up for a food parcel, just to make sure your son has lunches to go to school.

This is a real story. This is the face of the person that this government is going after—this is who this government seeks to attack through these changes that are before us.

She is worried about the future and whether she will be able to get work. Will she be able to up-skill and find new work, knowing that it is very expensive to study because of the changes cuts to TAFE in Victoria by the previous government? Helen worries that this is a cycle that will continue through her son's whole life. She worries about what happens when James gets older—when he wants more and more; when he wants to go out with his friends after school. His basketball will get more expensive. These are the real life stories; these are the people that will be hit hardest by this government's unfair changes and cuts to Family Tax Benefit Part A and Part B.

Uniting Care has done quite a bit to help people in my electorate. They fundraise to help families around Christmas and going back to school. In fact, a recent drive in Bendigo raised enough money to help 100 kids get the resources they need to return to school. This is while these families still have access to Family Tax Benefit Part A and Part B and while they still have access to the Schoolkids Bonus. I note that the Schoolkids Bonus will not help these families after next January. This June/July is the last period that these families will receive the Schoolkids Bonus.

Bendigo Family and Financial Counselling Services also report an increase in families and working people seeking support. People who are renting are quite often being crippled by increasing rents by the increased costs of running a house. Electricity prices are going up. All of them laugh when you ask them, 'Did you get your cheque for $550 that this government promised you when they repealed the carbon tax?' They laugh and say, 'You're joking, right? You're joking.' No cheque for $550; instead this government is repeatedly trying to cut Family Tax Benefit Part A and Part B. Let us take a note of the agencies I have mentioned: Bendigo Family and Financial Counselling Services, Bendigo Uniting Care and the Salvation Army. All of these agencies also had suffered a significant cut by this government in grants to deliver emergency food relief. Not only do these agencies have less funding, but they are helping more families. In fact, the Bendigo Family and Financial Counselling Services' emergency food relief funding was cut by 18 per cent last year, but the number of individuals and families seeking support rose by 30 per cent.

The working poor in our community, and especially the people trying to raise families, are doing it tough—really tough. The single parents, grandparents and parents are already doing it tough, and yet this government seeks to impose more pain on them by cutting the little income they have through the measures it puts forward in this bill. Despite the fact that these bills continue to be rejected by those in the other place, this government is determined to continue to push them through this parliament. It did demonstrates again government members are not listening to the people in their electorates. For all the people on that side who claim to represent regional and rural electorates, I question how often you are out there talking to people and help honest you are about the money you seek to cut from their budgets. A lot has happened in the last few years to put lots of pressure on household budgets—rent increases, higher utility charges, the cost of schooling is greater than it has ever been before, gap fees when it comes to medicine and Medicare or seeking to do the simple things like public transport, the cost of fuel. The daily expenses of living continue to go up, which is why these payments and these cuts at this time will hurt so many.

Another person in my electorate, Sharon, wrote to me on the news that this bill had re-entered parliament and this government was seeking again to cut family tax benefits. She wrote:

Lisa, please do not support these measures. We have met before. I am a single mum, still unemployed and after three years I am still looking for work. There is not a lot of part-time work available in Castlemaine. I currently receive a meagre $340 a week to support my daughter and myself. You can pass the disinformation onto your Liberal counterparts in parliament. It's very hard to survive on $340 a week. If family tax benefit B is removed it would take me down to $290 a week.

Two hundred and 90 dollars is not enough for a single parent family to survive on, yet that is what this government is trying to do in this measure before us. It demonstrates again how out of touch this government is with those who are trying to survive on the smallest of incomes. Sharon also says in her email:

It is already dehumanising to be unable to pay your bills, to seek the assistance of charities in a small community, where everybody knows your struggles. Those sympathetic looks and those looks of pity—I don't want my daughter to continue to experience those. I fill my pantry full of donations. I feel like I'm wearing on an armband 'Loser, bludger'—the shame that is embroidered upon me. I feel like I'm wearing a red letter, a letter that reminds me daily of my shame—

Debate interrupted.

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