Year 8 kids from Hunters Hill High School in NSW

Photo: Tess Peni
30/04/2001

New data released recently by the Australian Council of Social Service shows that up to 500,000 unemployed people and students are surviving on social security payments that are between 18% and 37% below the Henderson poverty line.

ACOSS President Michael Raper said: "These below-poverty line payments are a national disgrace which need urgent attention in the forthcoming May 22 Federal Budget."

"It is essential that the Federal Government provide some relief to unemployed people and students who are experiencing tremendous hardship as a result of their social security payments being so far below the poverty line."

"An adequate, basic income is fundamental to our social security system. The announcement of the Government's Welfare Reform Package in conjunction with the Budget must include proposals to lift basic payment rates for unemployed people and students."

"A good start would be to bring the Austudy payment for adult students up to the level of the Newstart Allowance for unemployed people. Indeed, the McClure report recommended these be merged."

"It is unfair and counterproductive that unemployed adults who seek to upgrade their skills by returning to study lose $78 a week when they shift from unemployment benefits to Austudy payment."

Key poverty line data

Media Release ACOSS 11 May 2001: http://www.acoss.org.au

Elspeth McInnes, chair of the National Council for Single Mothers and her Children, recently addressed a Women’s Anti-Poverty Forum in Melbourne. We have reprinted parts of her address here, as it clearly outlines the issues. We hope that the decision makers have a second look at the legislation and change the policy of splitting family tax benefits between separated partners who both care for their children.

If you would like to access the complete text of Elspeth's address contact us by sending us an  e-mail

Excerpts of Elspeth's Paper

THE POLICY:

FTB splitting means that children's payments in the household of the main careprovider are reduced if they see their contact parent. The family's standard of living drops and discretionary and fixed costs become less affordable. Even when the contact parent earns too much to be eligible for FTB the resident parent loses the percentage of payment represented by contact.

As of July 1 2000, Family Tax Benefit A and B became payable to individuals with ten percent or more care of a dependent child, defined as 37 nights, replacing a minimum threshold of 110 nights. The percentage of contact is determined by agreement between the parties, or by court order. Where there is disagreement, each party is invited to present supporting documentation. When documentation conflicts, the default position is the court order.

These court orders have to be interpreted by Centrelink officers without legal training, and without any verification process with the issuing court to ensure that they are current and accurately presented. This means that a contact parent does not actually have to see their children to get the money - they just need a court order and FTB payments to primary careproviders will be reduced to reflect the percentage.

A standard contact regime of every second weekend and half the school holidays represents a cut of 22 percent in the family's FTB payments.

FREQUENCY OF CHILD CONTACT:

In 1997, 21 percent of Australian children (978,400) had a natural parent living elsewhere.
Nine out of ten children lived with their mothers after separation (ABS 1999 Cat. No. 4119.0).
In only five percent of cases were children's living arrangements determined by Family Court order (FLC Annual Report 2000).
Three in every 100 children affected by separation lived in share care arrangements defined as more than 30 percent of care (ABS 1999 Cat. No. 4119.0).
Two-thirds of children saw their non-resident parent at least once every six months, and 41% saw their non-resident parent at least once a fortnight.

THE PROBLEM:

The following example shows the impact of FTB splitting on a mother whose 3 year old child sees the other parent for 20 percent of the time, and whose ex-partner has made a claim, raising a debt against her FTB income, as well as reducing the ongoing amount of FTB paid. The table reflects her income on June 30 2000, compared to her situation after the introduction of The New Tax System and FTB splitting. It reflects individual's actual income and GST costs.

The FTB splitting policy is in the process of creating a measurable increase in distress in single parent families across a range of indicators, including rates of homelessness, child poverty and family court litigation. Families in crisis actually cost the public purse more in services than families which are enabled to meet their needs.

Urgent change is necessary.

We call on the government to restore full payment of family tax benefit to single parent families to restore an equality of entitlement with children living in couple families. Any payment to contact parents should be independent of family tax benefit payments. The best interests of children should be guiding the design of family payment policies which reduce conflict and promote positive relationships between separated parents, as well as enabling low income families to meet their children's needs.

Elspeth McInnes, NCSMC, April 2001

Contents of
UpWords 2 No 5 

 Benefits 37% below poverty line

 May Day protests worldwide

 Mean spirited policies impoverish  single parents

Take a look at this month's additions to the Sleuth 

 Click here to access our  previous newsletters:

 UpWords 1 No. 1:
 What is Breaching

 UpWords 1 No. 2:
 Young Poor under Attack

 UpWords 1 No. 3:
 Frog Boiling;

 UpWords1 No. 4::
 Welfare Reform;

 UpWords1 No. 5:
 S11;

 UpWords1 No. 6:
 History of Unemployed Movements,
 Homelessness

 Up-Words No. 7:
 Launch of UPM/Latest Breaching  Statistics

 UpWords1 No 8:
 Open Letter to Minister Amanda  Vanstone

 UpWords2 No 1:
  Millionaires' Coup for Govenrment
 Centrelink Officiouisness hurts us  all

 UpWords2 No 2:
  Big Brother is watching you!
  Work for the Dole is not working

 UpWords2 No 3:
 Globalisation - the Excessive   Wealth Disease?

 UpWords2 No 4:
 Is Howard a Communist?
 Mal Brough, Minister for  Compassionate Employment  Figure Fudging

Up-Words Home

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Join UPM against Poverty
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Phone (08) 8352 4950

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Welcome to America, kid!

Land of opportunities - but maybe not for you!

Log on to the website of the

National Council of Single Mothers and Her Children: http://www.users.on.net/ncsmc

This year’s May Day Celebrations all over the world were linked to the M1 movement, a continuation of the world wide movement against corporate tyranny and institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other global organisations claiming the right to determine how the rest of the world should live their lives.

The Adelaide Stock Exchange was surrounded by police before the blockaders began their peaceful protest. There was great music provided by an energetic band with meaningful lyrics. This showed that art and entertainment can and should have a political message.

The mood was generally great,a conga line around the stock exchange and a march to Victoria Square with speeches from union delegates and M1 participants ended the protest at about 2 pm.

Two smart students brought their supposedly pro-globalism banner which said:

Globalise your day: WTO – Way to go!

Yes, we think so too. If the WTO goes on as it does, everything will go, as in disappear!

This year’s May Day protests worldwide were attempted to be stopped by varying degrees of violence from the police and state authorities.

Reports from Melbourne and Sydney told stories of brutal police treatment. In Brisbane demonstrators were chased through the side streets and many were arrested.

However there was no comparison to the wild battle that broke out in Berlin, Kreuzberg, where the police threw endless streams of tear gas and brutally beat the demonstrators. The battle lasted throughout the night and May 1.

We have reproduced some of the pictures which were all published on the indymedia web sites. .

The original May Day was also very violent. Several men lost their lives. Isn't it a shame that after almost 120 years we are still fighting the same battle? The battle for an eight hour day is again on the agenda with the number of hours worked in unpaid overtime being greater than the number of hours unemployed people could work, according to a press release in March from the Brisbane Institute and the University of Technology in Sydney..

The following report was adapted from a piece written and distributed by the Salt Lake City IWW and published on the indymedia web site in Chicago. (http://chicago.indymedia.org)

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day’s work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed.

With workers being forced to work 10, 12, and 14 hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders.

By April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved in the eight hour day movement. The movement’s increasingly revolutionary character terrified big business and the state, and they prepared accordingly; the Chicago Tribune – owned by the same family that owned the McCormick Harvester Works – worked to whip up anti-labor hysteria.

The Commercial Club bought a $2,000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to use against strikers. Nevertheless, by the spring the movement had gained immense momentum – and on May Day 1886 in Chicago alone, over 80,000 workers and their families marched down Michigan Avenue to support the struggle, with anarchist labor activists Albert and Lucy Parsons and their children joining to lead the march.

On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Harvester Works, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality. Three thousand people attended.

Albert Parsons, August Spies and others spoke to the crowd, and by the time Sam Fielden took the speaker’s platform, only about a third of the audience remained in the evening drizzle. As Fielden spoke, police captain John “Clubber” Bonfield led 180 cops wielding clubs into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. Fielden responded, “But Captain, we are peacable,” and in the tense seconds that followed, a bomb was thrown in the direction of the police, killing one cop and injuring dozens more – including seven who would later die of their wounds.

Police responded by firing wildly into the crowd and clubbing every worker within their reach, killing at least one worker and injuring hundreds of others. It was never determined who threw the bomb, although a hypothesis that the bomb had been thrown by a hired agent provocateur later gained a measure of police corroboration. But in the immediate aftermath of the Haymarket incident, the bombing was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement.

Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, beating and even torturing many of their targets, and arrested hundreds without charge. Anarchists in particular were attacked, and eight of Chicago’s most active – Parsons, Spies, Fielden, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg and Oscar Neebe – were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing.

A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only Fielden was present when the bomb was tossed, and he was on the speakers’ platform), and they were sentenced to die. The sentences ignited an international campaign to win justice for the accused, and the Haymarket Eight became a rallying point for labor activists across the globe.

But the court and local business leaders were intent on executing the men for their beliefs, and on November 11, 1887 Parsons, Spies, Fischer, and Engel were hanged. Lingg died in prison, a presumed suicide.The remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.

It was in recognition of the sacrifice of the Haymarket Martyrs that in 1889 the International Socialist Congress declared May 1 as International Workers’ Day.

UPM against Poverty members at M1 in Adelaide
Photo: David Farrant

Comments?

Photo: David Farrant: Montage: Monika Baker

Year 8 kids from Hunters Hill High School in NSW in front of
the Premier's Office:

Edmond Harry, Aaron, Matt and Tom

Photo: Tess Peni
30/04/2001

Denny from Action for World Development
M1 in Sydney
Take a look at their web site! You will leave our site if you
follow this link. Use the back button in your browser to return.

Police Brutality in Berlin on May 1 M1 Anti - Corporate Globalisation Protest in Sydney

Nike Ghost in Melbourne at M1

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May Day M1 photo collage from Adelaide

Photos: David Farrant; Collage: Monika Baker

Want to know
if the economy is working...,
ask someone
who isn't!

Chairperson David Rigney at M1 in Adelaide

Photos: David Farrant

'Nice' police
in Melbourne

Bored police in Adelaide

M1 2001

Photo Adelaide: David Farrant