Tax cuts will leave 2.5m poor in Australia struggling to live, Catholic Church tells government

The Catholic Church in Australia has stepped up its criticisms of proposed changes to Family Tax Benefits, with the leader of a church agency telling a Senate inquiry that the proposal would leave many families without an adequate standard of living or sufficient resources for parents to provide a decent living for their children.

Mr Brian Lawrence, Chairman of the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations, told the Senate Community Affairs Committee hearing on 19 November into legislation to enact the changes that proposed cuts would fall on about 2.5 million Australian families, all of whom would suffer substantial cuts in their incomes.

All children would be worse off, except those less than 12 months old, he said.

"The Bill would leave many without an adequate standard of living and without sufficient financial resources for parents to provide a decent living for their children," Mr Lawrence said. "Many more children will live in poverty if this Bill is passed."

His submission followed remarks on 10 November by the Chief Executive of Catholic Social Services Australia, Ms Marcelle Mogg, that the proposal discriminated against children who had two parents with a single income.

“The issue here is children living in poverty," Ms Mogg said. "Whether the child has one or two parents should not be the basis for discrimination. We must support low-income families if we are to secure a better future for their children."

She said the current benefit helped parents make an effective choice as to how they would balance work and family responsibilities.

“Keeping children at school and enabling families to manage their lives and make good choices is worth far more in human and economic terms than the relatively few dollars saved in the short term.

“These changes significantly limit the capacity of low income families to secure a better future for their children.

“Family life should never be the preserve of the affluent.”

Mr Lawrence told the Senate hearing that the cuts, which are due to begin on 1 July next year and be fully implemented two years later, would inflict an unjust burden on all families, but particularly those who relied on a single income and had children in secondary schools.

"These changes are proposed to take place without any reference to the needs or financial circumstances of the families concerned," he said. "They would apply to the many families who are already living in poverty.

"It is important to appreciate the personal and family consequences of what is proposed by the Bill and how the lives of many children would be affected. For couple-parent and sole-parent families, and for grandparents who have the care of a grandchild, the Bill proposes withdrawal of support when their children are in the final and critically important years of their schooling.

"The proposal in the Bill to limit the eligibility of single breadwinner couple families is contrary to long-established provisions in Australian taxation and social security laws which have provided financial support to families where one of the parents stays out of the paid workforce in order to care for their children."

Mr Lawrence said the legislation failed to meet the requirements of the Convention on the Rights of the Child "because of the very deleterious effects it would have on children in low-income families across Australia".

"Legislation that causes large numbers of children to fall into poverty, or deeper into poverty, cannot be consistent with the Convention," he said.