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.

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.

We know that poverty entraps talents and limits single mothers potential including studying and we’ve been an active voice to seek paid placements. Our message at the Jobs & Skills Summit. 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.

We have been a determined voice seeking respect in the public discourse. Examples include our advocacy for policy changes and aligned to cultural changes in 2022; helped remove third-party verification of welfare recipients claiming Parenting Payment Single and Jobseeker in 2021; and publishing an article in 2017 which salutes single mums with all of our guises, diversity and differences.

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.

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.

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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.