About Us

Single Mother Families Australia provides a range of platforms that give voice and respect to the lived reality for single mother families.

Our key focus is for single mother families affected by hardship, poverty, and gender-based violence.

Single Mother Families Australia (SMFA) was conceived in 1973 as a lead national voice with policy insight and expertise. We commenced life as the National Council of Single Mothers & their Children Inc and changed our name to Single Mother Families Australia in 2023 as part of our 50 year celebration. SMFA is an organisation dedicated to single mother families. We have an unrelenting quest and commitment to seek safer lives with agency, control and economic certainty for single mother families.

In May 2023, we gathered in Melbourne on 5th May 2023 to celebrate and mark 50 years of work. A distinguished panel including two founding members, Rosemary West OAM and Tricia Harper AM, shared the spotlight with Brian Howe AO. The panel reflected on Whitlam's introduction of the Supporting Mothers Benefit in 1973. You can read more in the chapter ‘Out of Wedlock Out of Luck’ from Women and Whitlam: Revising the Revolution, book, authored by our CEO Terese Edwards.

Re Unleashing our potential - We know that poverty entraps talents and limits single mothers potential including studying and we’ve been an active voice to seek paid placements. The possibilities are endless if we view single mothers as an asset. For too long we have expected women to work as if they don’t have children and to parent as if they don’t have paid work. See our message to the 2022 Jobs and Skills Summit.

Single Mother Families Australia (SMFA) is a not-for-profit organisation. We are governed by an elected Board, the Members are predominately single mothers themselves providing rich perspectives on the work we do.

We are Incorporated in South Australia, uphold the requirements of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and have DGR status so that all donations are tax deductible.

SMFA 2023 Annual Report

About Terese Edwards, CEO, Single Mother Families Australia.  Terese has been a leading advocate for single mother families since 2009 when she was appointed CEO of the National Council for Single Mothers and Their Children (the previous name for Single Mother Families Australia).  Terese has campaigned tirelessly on key issues affecting single mother families. Jess Hill writing in The Monthly December 2023 How to change a bad law said of Terese “one woman in particular had been campaigning relentlessly to restore the single parenting payment…pounding the corridors of parliament since 2009.”  Terese is known as a long term advocate for an emergency domestic violence payment (recently made permanent by the Prime Minister), has advocated for single mothers caught by the illegal Robodebt scheme; campaigned against the punishing Parent’s Next program and is involved in designing a new support program.  She has also proposed important child support reforms to increase payments to children and reduce the ability for it to be weaponised against women.  Terese speaks with single Mum’s most days advising them on how to navigate complex systems to get the assistance they need.  Often these calls are harrowing, detailing brutal domestic violence, financial abuse and heartbreaking stories of what they can’t afford to provide for their children.

Terese also co-produced 10 Stories of Single Mothers which premiered in Parliament House in 2014, is a published author and was inducted to the South Australian Women Honor Roll 2023.  Speaking when she won The Unsung Hero Award in 2019, Terese said, “I want women to feel proud.’ She has a Masters in Business Administration and Management from Flinders University and is close to completing her PhD.

Email hello@smfa.com.au

Text 0439211493. It is an efficient way to start a conversion. It allows Terese to read your message while in between meetings or performing other tasks.

December 2023	Terese Edwards, SMFA CEO acknowledged as key influencer in decision to change eligibility for Parenting Payment Single. Jess Hill, How to change a bad law, The Monthly, December 2023-January 2024.
September 2023	82,000 single parents moved from JobSeeker to higher payment rates (Parenting Payment Single) until their youngest child turns 14.
May 2023	Prime Minister announces the Federal Budget 2023-24 will expand access to financial support by raising the age cut-off for the Parenting Payment (Single) from 8 to 14.
March 2023	Letter to Senator the Hon. Katy Gallagher from Women's Economic Equality Taskforce advice for May 2023 Budget – top 3 recommendations key asks from SMFA, including increasing eligibility for Parenting Payment Single. See also Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce 2023 final report.
2022	Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce announced by Minister for Women, SMFA CEO appointed to Taskforce
2022	The Age/SMH, Child poverty: Julia Gillard committed a terrible wrong. It’s time for Anthony Albanese to right it, 4/8/22.
2021	National Council for Single Mothers and Their Children Submission #27 to the Senate Inquiry into the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Extension of Coronavirus Support) Bill 2020, November 2021.
2020	550 Reasons to Smile campaign (with Facebook page), to show benefit of additional support of $550 per fortnight Covid Supplement (& need to maintain it). See Stephen Lunn, The Australian, Risk of one in five kids living in poverty, 12/7/20. Belinda Jepsen, Mamamia, Coronavirus Supplement impact: what $550 really means, 17/7/20; Stephen Lunn, The Australian, Disbelief at single mum cuts, 22/7/20.
2017	Complaint lodged by SMFA to the United Nations Convention on the Status of Women regarding Australia denying a parenting payment because their youngest child had celebrated their eighth birthday.
2014	Release of short film co-produced by SMFA CEO, 10 Stories of Single Mothers.
2014	Challenging and helping to stop Budget 2013-14 cuts to Family Benefits.
2012	Gave evidence to the first case before the newly established Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. Case related to Parenting Payment Single changes: Social Security Amendment (Fair Incentives to Work) Bill 2012 – Parliament of Australia.
2012	Gave evidence to the Social Security Amendment (Fair Incentives to Work) Bill 2012 – Parliament of Australia, which transferred ~80,000 sole parent families with children 8 years and older from Parenting Payment Single to the lower Newstart Allowance. These had previously been protected from the Coalition 2006 measures.

“For more than a decade, one woman in particular had been campaigning relentlessly to restore the single parenting payment. Terese Edwards, chief executive of the Council of Single Mothers and their Children, had been pounding the corridors of parliament since Julia Gillard was prime minister.” from Jess Hill, How to change a bad law, The Monthly, December 2023-January 2024

“When Terese Edwards got the phone call inviting her to be on the (Women’s Economic Equality) taskforce, she knew this was her chance to barrack for women “who have no platform, no agency and no capacity” -from Jess Hill, How to change a bad law, The Monthly, December 2023-January 2024

The day after the budget, Edwards walked the blue-carpeted halls of Parliament House, thanking every minister she could find. “I wanted them to know, to hear firsthand how powerful this impact was. And it was during my solidarity walk that I managed to gain a meeting with the prime minister. I played him a voice message from a single mum. He told me he had retweeted my media release about the policy change, because it was about restoring respect for single mothers. It was real and personal.” from Jess Hill, How to change a bad law, The Monthly, December 2023-January 2024.

SMFA works to reframe the dialogue and ensure that single mothers' strengths, their voices, and their lived reality are central to policy determinations. The ambition is undertaken knowing that single mothers are disproportionally harmed by entrenched financial distress, poverty, and gendered violence. Moreover, single mothers encounter systems and assumptions that have unconscious and conscious biases, too often steeped in prejudice whilst ignoring the gendered dynamic. SMFA also provides a ‘soft entry ~ light-touch’ online platform through a public Facebook page. Creating a safe and affordable online community for single mothers. The Facebook page disseminates information and responds to single mothers' requests.

One of our greatest strengths is our expertise and commitment to working with and for the advancement of single-mother families harmed by poverty, hardship, and gendered violence.

July 2024	SMFA CEO gives evidence to Parliamentary Inquiry into Financial Abuse
June 2024	SMFA submission #47 to Parliamentary Inquiry into Financial Abuse focuses on need to reform child support so it cannot be weaponised against women.
October 2023	Anti-Poverty Week story ABC TV News Breakfast 27/10/23 and The Project “Preventable Poverty,” 27/10/23, following Joint Media Release SMFA and Anti-Poverty Week, 26/10/23. Minister for Social Services responds saying “I am keenly aware of the difficult financial circumstances facing many single parents and I am committed to ensuring these parents receive the financial support that they, and their children, are entitled to.”
October 2023	Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce 2023 final report published and recommends “removing the Child Support Maintenance Income Test from the Family Tax Benefit Part A calculation, to establish certainty of family payments for financially vulnerable families and to prevent child support from being used as a tool of financial abuse.”
June 2023	Legislation passed to improve collection of unpaid child support and make child support assessments more accurate. Minister for Social Services said “This Bill will help fix some of the issues with the child support system but we know there are more issues to solve, including non-compliance and the use of the system as a means of financial abuse and control.”
May 2023	The Federal Government announced that it would commit $5.1 million over 5 years from 2022-23 to implement key recommendations made by the 2021 Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Family Law System. This includes: re-establishing the Child Support Stakeholder Consultation Group after it being dormant for nearly 10 years.(SMFA CEO appointed to Group) appointing an Child Support Expert Panel to review various aspects of the system, including on the costs of raising children in Australia review compliance in the child support scheme, with a focus on collection and enforcement; review the interaction between the child support scheme and Family Tax Benefit to ensure vulnerable single parent families are financially supported after separation; undertake an evaluation of separated families to understand what can be done to support parents with caring responsibilities where private collection arrangements have broken down.
March 2023	Letter to Senator the Hon. Katy Gallagher from Women's Economic Equality Taskforce advice for May 2023 Budget – includes key asks from SMFA on child support.
March 2023	Financial abuse: the weaponisation of child support in Australia report published and discussed at forum in Parliament House.
2022	Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce announced by Minister for Women, SMFA CEO appointed to Taskforce
August 2022	Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, 18/8/22, Child poverty: Tighten tax system to target child support avoidance, single parents say. ABC Radio The World Today interview, 18/8/22, Child support dodgers: ‘make them file a tax return’, following Joint Media Release SMFA and Anti-Poverty Week, 18/10/22.
November 2021	Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Family Law System, Interim Report focused on Child Support published.
December 2019	How Single Mothers and their Children Experience the Australian Child Support system — Power to Persuade publishedd legal loopholes mean that the system is utterly failing at this purpose.”
December 2019	Debts and Disappointment: How Single Mothers and their Children Experience the Australian Child Support System. “The purpose of child support is to keep children from single-parent families out of poverty. That was the intention when it was introduced in Australia 30 years ago. But a combination of bureaucratic complexity, lack of enforcement, and legal loopholes mean that the system is utterly failing at this purpose.”

May 2024	Announcement by the Prime Minister that the Escaping Domestic Violence Payment will be made permanent in July 2025.
2023	Abolition of presumption of share care and advocacy related to it. SMFA opposed the unsafe outcomes of the Shared Parenting legislation with consistent engagement in political inquiry as captured in an Adelaide Now Opinion Piece.
2023	Supporting women to speak before Parliament including the 2023 Family Law reforms.
2023	NCSMC_CSMC-Joint-submission-Family-Law-Amendment-Bill
October 2022	The National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 published, acknowledges importance of income support (previous Plan did not).
2021	Escaping Domestic Violence pilot program introduced following years of advocacy by SMFA. Ongoing work to expanding the policy decisions of women’s safety to include social security. SMFA (submission 33) called for an introduction of a $7,000 payment in the 2015 Inquiry into Economic security for women in retirement. Including challenging and stopping the announced cuts to Family Benefits in 2014.
2010 - 2024	Years of work urging for better laws (2010) to 2023 and ongoing. Willingness to set out the facts in family law.

May 2023	Parent’sNext compulsory participation abolished – new voluntary scheme due to commence November 2024. SMFA CEO and SFMA Board Member Angela Finch on reference group providing input to design.
February 2023	Parliamentary Inquiry into Workforce Australia Interim Report recommends that “ParentsNext be abolished at the end of its current contract and be replaced with a new pre-vocational service.”
December 2022	SMFA CEO gives evidence to Workforce Australia Employment Services on ParentsNext
October 2022	SMFA submission #5 to Parliamentary Inquiry into Workforce Australia states: “The ParentsNext program is too tarnished to continue. It requires a complete overhaul and a cultural shift: 1. Institute a complete redesign and re-branding with no compulsion required for participation.”
August 2022	Parliamentary Inquiry into Workforce Australia established.
March 2019	Parliamentary Inquiry into ParentsNext recommends program is “reshaped, through a process of co-design with parents and experts, into a more supportive pre employment program which meets the needs of parents and acknowledges and addresses the structural barriers to employment which they face.”
February 2019	SMFA CEO gives evidence to Inquiry into ParentsNext.
January 2019	SMFA submission (#20) to Parliamentary Inquiry into ParentsNext recommends “urgently remove compliance and penalty from the ParentsNext program & reinvest in practical and or financial assistance as requested by women.”