2016-05-12
The Australian Greens have today expressed support for single mum Melinda who confronted the Prime Minister about cuts to the Family Tax Benefit.
“It takes a lot of courage to push through a press pack and confront the Prime Minister about unfair cuts to struggling parents, but that is exactly what Melinda has done today.
“According to reports this is the first ‘real voter’ to manage a conversation with the Prime Minister whilst on the campaign trail, it is clear that the Prime Minister is avoiding these public conversations for a reason.
“The Greens have always stood with single parents, we opposed dropping them off parenting payment single onto Newstart and we opposed the proposed cuts to family tax benefit in the entirety, including when the ALP joined forces with the Liberals and Nationals to cut payments for low income coupled families.
“As we learned today thanks to modelling by the ANU, Australia’s poorest families will be hardest hit when all of the measures from the Government’s recent budget are implemented.
“The people hurt hardest are those like Melinda. Single-parent families in the poorest 20 per cent of homes will be worst affected by the 2018-19 financial year.
“The coalition is set on attacking low income families rather than the wealthy, we must have the courage to do better”.