Dr Elroy Dearn
This year Anti-Poverty Week 2023 (15-27 October) is continuing and extending its campaign to end child poverty in Australia. To achieve this requires a strong focus on supporting families of all kinds. In today’s post Dr Alice Campbell (@ColtonCambo] of Life Course Centre (@lifecourseAust) examines the challenges and opportunities in supporting single parenting, co-parenting and post-separation families.
Read MoreIn today’s blog, Suralini Fernando from Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand (@GoodShepANZ) explores the link between social security policy and childhood trauma and attachment. Suralini is a social inclusion advocate and yoga facilitator of South Asian heritage, who has an abiding interest in the connections between embodiment, relational safety and belonging.
Read MoreWomen are more reliant on the social safety net than men, but what is their experience of it? In today’s analysis, researchers across multiple components of the safety net explain how deliberate design decisions have created a system that places women in crisis. This long read is based on a presentation at the Australian Social Policy Conference in October 2021.
Read MoreThe Women’s Safety Summit was noticeably silent on the social safety net. As an area over which the Federal Government has complete control, it represents an accessible lever for policy change. In today’s analysis, the paper that was tabled jointly by the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children (NCSMC) and ACOSS (@ACOSS) is presented, detailing eleven ways that social security works to harm women. Terese Edwards (@Terese_NCSMC) of NCSMC provides a preface.
Read MoreSingle mothers are the most impoverished household type in Australia. Receipt of child support can keep single parent households out of poverty, however research indicates those in greatest need are also the most likely to miss out. In today’s analysis, Zoë Goodall (@ZAGoodall) and Policy Whisperer Kay Cook (@KayCookPhd) both of Swinburne University, and Terese Edwards (@Terese_NCSMC) of the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children share highlights from their new report into how women experience the child support system and why it is often difficult to receive payments.
Read MoreIn response to the inquiry announced this week into Australia’s Family Law System, the team at the Women’s Research, Advocacy and Policy (WRAP) Centre at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand has pulled together some of the concerns expressed by advocates for women’s and children’s safety.
Read MorePoverty in Australia appears to be entrenched for many marginalised groups, and this is a concern which is regularly raised in the lead-up to the Federal election – is Australia “fair”? However, one policy area on which there is resounding silence is child support. In today’s federal election series, Kris Natalier (@KrisNatalier) of Flinders University and Terese Edwards (@Terese_NCSMC) of the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children argue that child support reform is urgently needed to reduce poverty levels and improve financial and psychological wellbeing for some of Australia’s most disadvantaged families.
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