SINGLE parents in Lalor feeling the pinch after losing up to $110 a week in Centrelink payments want welfare to be the dominant issue during the run-up to next month’s election.
Former prime minister Julia Gillard’s decision to shift thousands of single parents from parenting payments onto the Newstart allowance caused controversy in her seat of Lalor, which had 4973 families affected by the change – the highest number in Australia.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has flagged he will weigh up whether to reverse the controversial change. But the ALP’s Lalor candidate, Joanne Ryan, said she supported the shift to the dole when a parent’s youngest child turns 8 because it was working to break the poverty cycle.
Ms Ryan, who was a single mother-of-three for more than six years, said the welfare shift had moved about 10 per cent of affected parents in the electorate into the workforce.
“It’s actually trying to change a culture by saying to women all girls need the potential to have an income stream for their entire lives, whether you’re married to James Packer or have three kids on your own in Werribee North.’’
Hoppers Crossing single mother Janet Tregear, who works six days a week in two jobs, said most single parents were already in the workforce. She fears the cuts will push her family into poverty.
“At the moment I’ve got power bills coming out of my ears and I can’t get ahead. I’m really struggling.”
Wyndham Vale’s Kerry Arch, of lobby group United Sole Parents of Australia, said national petitions and rallies would keep the heat on politicians ahead of the election.
Liberal candidate for Lalor Nihal Samara said the Liberal Party was committed to boosting jobs for mature-age workers and implementing “genuine welfare reform”.
Greens’ Lalor candidate Beck Sheffield-Brotherton said the Greens wanted a Newstart increase and a reversal of the parenting payment changes.
