Plight of solo parents

The solo parent workshop proved a great opportunity to listen to solo mothers, talk about their anger and outrage at the government's attacks on them, and the daily hassles they experience. Some of their stories seem incredible the DPB is usually cut before the Social Welfare Department has carried out an investigation, and this sometimes takes them three months, — so solo mothers are assumed guilty until they can prove themselves innocent, or until the Department makes an effort to allow themselves to prove their innocence. Other solo mothers spoke of the Dept's half-hearted efforts at chasing up maintenance and its victimisation of women whose husbands have fallen behind in maintenance payments. One husband who had fallen so behind was a social worker with the Department of S.W. itself. And so it is very difficult for solo mothers not to direct their anger at men, rather than at the unjust economic and social system which is ultimately responsible.

The workshop could have given more time and emphasis to bringing forward policy and action recommendations. The need for solo mothers to join together with others to build some sort of political force to fight the attacks made on them was acknowledged, but little time was spent in discussing it. Solo mothers recognised that, unlike trade unions which have some sort of organisation to fight with, they are unorganised and defenceless. And, as many of them said, they are so worn out coping with the hassles of the Dept, day to day living, and the 'stigma' of being a solo mother, that they haven't the energy left to put into political action.

But the workshop was unanimous in its condemnation of the Domestic Purposes Review Committee, and in the need for the term 'de facto' to be clarified immediately. At present the criteria for deciding on whether a woman is living in a de facto relationship varies from region to region.