Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table an explanatory memorandum and I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated into Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

It is nearly six months since this government announced its cruel budget cuts. Since that time I have received letters, email and calls from people in distress about how they were going to manage under the Government's harsh proposals. Single parents are particularly concerned.

Single parents have been consistently attacked since then Prime Minister Howard brought in so called Welfare to Work measures that undermined and demonised single parents. The changes cut single parents' income support by dumping them onto the lower payment of Newstart when their youngest child turned 8. The Gillard Government continued this attack when they dumped onto Newstart those grandfathered from the Howard Government changes.

Economic modelling has shown that the 2014-2015 budget targets the most disadvantaged in the Australian community. Single parent families, whose payments have been reduced over the last 8 years will be further unfairly impacted by this budget, making a mockery of the Government's claim that everyone will be doing the heavy lifting.

Analysis by ACOSS shows that cuts focused on low and middle income earners make up 52% of budget savings of the next four years. Cuts to family payments, changes to indexation of the parenting payment, removal of the Pensioner Education Supplement as well as the increased costs of medication and visits to the doctor will all have a substantial impact on families.

ACOSS have found that single parent households on low incomes will be $50 per week worse off as a result of cuts to family payments alone, and NATSEM suggest some single parent families will lose more than 14% of their disposable income as a result of budget measures.

Cutting the Pensioner Education Supplement which helps more than 17,000 single parents around the country is an especially callous decision from a government with a so-called commitment to 'earn or learn'.

Cutting income support for single parents will make it harder for them to afford the absolute essentials like rent and food, let alone child care and the other costs associated with looking for work, studying and training. Pushing single parent families further into poverty greatly increases the risk of them and their children experiencing long term disadvantage and poverty.

This is why this Bill is so important. The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Caring for Single Parents) Bill 2014 reverses the changes made by both the Howard and Gillard Governments that dump single parents onto Newstart.

This will mean that single parents remain eligible for parenting payments until their youngest child turns 16, rather than the current age of 8, which was imposed by the Howard Government's Welfare to Work regime in 2006.

In the previous Parliament, I introduced a Bill to restore income support to single parents on Newstart to the equivalent of the parenting payment. The feedback from single parents was that they did not want to be on Newstart and that they felt diminished as parents by the payment. I have taken this into account in this new Bill. This Bill reverses the changes that dump single parents onto Newstart. That means that single parents will remain on Parenting Payments while they raise their children.

The Welfare to Work approach has always been about punishing single parents and saving money off the backs of vulnerable people. Forcing single parents onto Newstart does nothing to help them into work. It exposes them and their children to poverty and makes it harder to find work. More than half of those parents affected by last year's payment cuts were already in paid work.

To help people into work we need to ensure they have access to education and training opportunities, child care and other support services, many of which are out of reach when you're living beneath the poverty line on Newstart.

Significant numbers of single parents on the Newstart Allowance experience multiple deprivations, going without items that are vital for an adequate standard of living — for example, medical treatment, warm clothes, a decent and secure home, and school books for children. Newstart puts adequate food, safe accommodation and basic household expenses out of reach.

Our legislation will provide stronger support for single parents to raise their families, while they're raising their children, working or studying. It will help keep families out of poverty and give children a better start in life.

Our Bill also ensures employees who are carers have the right to request flexible working arrangements. Carers do vital work across the community and without them, the cost to government and the not-for-profit sector would be considerably higher. They need to be supported to combine employment with their caring responsibilities.

I am deeply concerned that the challenges faced by single parents will be compounded by other budget measures proposed by the Government. The Welfare to Work changes of the Howard Government, along with Labor's changes to parenting payments dumping more single parents onto Newstart put them at significantly increased risk of poverty. This policy needs to be reversed, so single parents are not forced to raise their family on Newstart.

The Greens are committed to helping people trapped in poverty, and to begin this process, we also have a Bill before the Senate to increase the base rate of Newstart by $50 per week and ensure the payment is properly indexed to reflect the increasing cost of living.

Helping single parents and lifting Newstart are two important steps towards reducing poverty.

I commend the Bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.