Welfare Peak Body to Appear Before Parliamentary Committee
21 June 2012 at 12:42 pm
Welfare peak body ACOSS has been summoned to Canberra to appear before a Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights.
ACOSS is to appear before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights in Canberra today to discuss Single Parenting Payments and the Newstart Allowance.
ACOSS says it has been asked to attend a hearing following its request for an Inquiry by the Committee on the government's legislation that would see more than 100,000 sole parents taken off Single Parenting Payments and onto Newstart Allowance when their child turns eight.
In a recent letter signed by 15 groups ACOSS outlined legal advice that the proposal is a violation of human rights as defined by the core UN treaties and must be put on hold. See the letter here.
ACOSS says this is part of an ongoing campaign to force the government to reverse the proposal which will affect more than 100,000 single parent families around the country.
The peak body says it is currently lobbying all Federal Members of Parliament and Senators to make them aware of the full impact of this proposal to convince them to vote against this part of the legislation in parliament.
