CUTS to parenting payments won’t cause a backlash in the Prime Minister’s seat of Lalor, according to a leading political analyst, despite figures revealing Lalor has the highest number of single mothers in Australia.
As Wyndham lobby groups increase fierce opposition against the decision to shift thousands of single parents onto lower-paying welfare, Monash University political lecturer Nick Economou predicts the electoral blowback will be absorbed by the fact that the majority of families affected live in safe Labor seats.
From January 1, about 84,000 single parents were moved from parenting payments onto the Newstart Allowance. Each lost between $60 and $110 a week.
Dr Economou said the changes were a betrayal of the government’s political base, but were unlikely to drive a major swing against Prime Minister Julia Gillard at September’s election.
Department of Human Services figures show Ms Gillard’s Lalor electorate, including Wyndham, had 4973 parents on single parenting payments – the highest in the country – before the changes were brought in.
Labor also holds the next two most vulnerable seats, in Sydney and Adelaide, each with more than 4500 on single parent payments.
Dr Economou said the welfare change would not affect the vote in Lalor as much as other problems plaguing the government, such as party instability. “When you factor in everything else that has gone wrong with the political debate that will affect the result in Lalor, there is going to be a swing of about 4 or 5 per cent anyway.”
Dr Economou said the parent payment policy, designed to move more parents into the workforce, was problematic because it had been partly introduced by the Howard government during a labour market shortage, and “now the economy is going the other way”.
Ms Gillard said the changes were a matter of fairness in bringing single parents who were “grandfathered” under the old rules on to the same rules as everyone else.
“When children are a little bit older, I think it’s a good thing for them to grow up in a household where someone works,’’ she said.
Wyndham Vale mother-of-two Kerry Arch said 60 per cent of single parents affected by the cuts had already been in paid work.
The 42-year-old, who works four days a week, said she had received $100 less a week since January.
“Now I have to look for full-time work, but I struggle with the pressure I’m under mentally and physically already.
“Parents are losing their homes because they can’t afford their rentals, they’re losing their bond money, and a huge number are living in cars now.”
The United Sole Parents of Australia will hold a rally outside Ms Gillard’s Werribee office on Thursday.
