Renegades force Wayne Swan rethink on welfare

    by: Patricia Karvelas
    From: The Australian
    March 20, 2013


A NEW ginger group of up to 10 Labor MPs will meet Wayne Swan ahead of the May budget to push for an overhaul of welfare policy, including an increase to Newstart and allowing single mothers to keep more of their welfare payments when they work.    

The MPs are angry about welfare payment cuts on single parents and yesterday warned both Julia Gillard and the Treasurer that the slash in payments undermined Labor's core values and alienated traditional supporters.

Mr Swan has given the MPs the commitment he would meet with them to talk about policy reform.

Stephen Jones, federal Labor MP for Throsby, Janelle Saffin, Labor MP for Page in northern NSW, former Speaker Harry Jenkins and NSW MPs Ed Husic and Jill Hall were the five that spoke out in a caucus backlash yesterday.

Ms Saffin told The Australian last night they would be pushing for change as a group.

"A lot of us have been asking for change in this area; I'm not the only one," she said.


"We want to meet with the Treasurer as a group and push for action in the budget."    

A spokesman for Mr Swan said: "The Treasurer regularly discusses issues with caucus members in the lead-up to the budget and of course this year will be no different." Former Labor Party senator and demographer John Black said last month the ALP had failed to understand the political importance of single mothers, particularly in vital western Sydney seats, and warned Labor that it needed to do more to win over women voters.

Workplace Minister Bill Shorten declared there was "some way to go" on bedding down the changes that have stripped benefits from more than 67,000 single parents.

He denied his government was abandoning single mothers, a vulnerable group the Labor Party was supposed to protect.

"I am not walking away," he said. "The issue is (that) on one hand we want to encourage participation and on the other we want to make sure people are making ends meet.

" I do get the point that sole parents have made to me that the changes are very difficult so I have indicated to caucus members that we will keep talking about what we can do. One thing I do really fundamentally believe is that if you are a sole parent trying to work, trying to raise your kids, there is a job there for government to give as much assistance as possible." The previous budget change that the MPs are opposing forces single parents off the parenting payment and on to the Newstart allowance when their youngest child turns eight.

Four MPs addressed their comments to Ms Gillard , with one saying the change had been a mistake.

Another urged Ms Gillard and Mr Swan to allow single parents to earn more before their payments were affected.

Single parents forced from the pension on to Newstart receive between $60 to $100 less a week.    

Swagman wrote on Apr 24^th, 2013 at 1:55pm:



Welcome, Swagman.

I'm not so sure. Yes, he'd have to know he's gone in September, but I doubt
he'll go out in a burst of magnanimity. My guess is he's still hoping to get a
few votes out of refusing the increase.

Besides, I'd bet that any increase Swann did grant would be clawed back
by Tony within weeks of taking power. He's that sort of person.