Sign Now for One Fair GoCSMC’s Victorian Election Campaign 2026
Every family should have a safe, secure place to call home and a fair go at building a life, whether there is one parent at the kitchen table or two.
When families have secure, affordable homes, kids make friends at school and keep them; parents can hold down work; families put down roots and give back to their communities.
At the Victorian election on 28 November 2026, over 200,000 single mothers will have a chance to have their say about who represents them on the issues that affect their lives and that of their children.
The issues – the Single Mother Test
Victoria has reformed renting, but Victoria’s renting rules were written without single mothers in mind. Even as the laws have changed, many have not been implemented in real terms. Screening systems reject many single income applications before anyone looks at the person. Long leases exist on paper, and almost nobody gets one. Promises made to women rebuilding after violence go unkept. Homes built and sold as ‘affordable’ still price our families out. None of this requires more legislation. It’s a case for making what’s already been promised real.
On behalf of single mothers, we are asking “do government policies work for a household with one parent and one income”?
1. Apply the Single Mother Test to cost-of-living relief.
Before any cost-of-living measure is designed or announced, governments must publish what it is worth to a family with one parent and one income – and fix it if it doesn’t. Too much relief is built around two-income assumptions and reaches single mother families last, or not at all.
2. House women and children escaping family violence.
The Victorian Government’s own target is to house them within 10.5 months of being approved for priority housing. The current average is 17.3 months. Commit to meeting that target, and to a date by which it will be met – with the homes sourced, rather than families counted against crisis accommodation that is scarce and short. Being placed somewhere for a few weeks is not being housed.
3. Bring rent-tech into the open.
Rental applications are increasingly assessed by software and artificial intelligence, which score and rank applicants before a person reads them. When an application is rejected, no reason has to be given. Regulate these systems, and require that an applicant be told when an automated assessment contributed to a rejection. A woman who has paid her rent in full for years, and a woman rebuilding after violence whose name was never on the lease, are judged by the same arithmetic and both fail it. A person, not a score, should decide who gets a home.
4. A home a family can stay in, and that is fit to live in.
Rental properties must already meet 15 minimum standards before they can be advertised – a working heater, no mould, secure locks. Nothing verifies that they do. Enforcement waits on a tenant complaining, which is little protection for a mother who will not risk her family’s home over a broken heater. Introduce genuine checks, and make sure improvements reach families who stay, not only those who move.
5. Make “affordable” housing reach the families who need it.
Affordable housing schemes set a minimum income you have to earn before you can even apply – at least $67,711 in Melbourne, or $47,251 in regional Victoria. A single mother on Parenting Payment does not earn that anywhere in the state. Tie “affordable” to what a family can actually pay, remove the income floors that lock her out, and make commitments binding so they cannot be wound back after approval.
Open Letter
To every party contesting the Victorian election,
There are 212,000 single mother families in Victoria.
We are raising children, working, volunteering and contributing to our communities. Yet too often, policies on housing, affordability and cost of living are designed around households with two incomes.
This election, we are asking every party to apply the Single Mother Test before announcing any policy, and ask: Would this work for a family with one income and one adult?
We call on all parties to:
- Apply the Single Mother Test to all cost-of-living measures.
- Meet the Victorian target for housing women and children escaping family violence.
- Increase transparency and accountability in automated rental screening.
- Ensure rental homes are safe, healthy and properly maintained.
- Make affordable housing genuinely affordable for low-income single-parent families
We will publish where every party stands before Victorians vote.
One parent. One income. One fair go.
Signed
Single mothers and supporters across Victoria
Sign Now for One Fair Go
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The scorecard
CSMC has assessed the major parties, minor parties and declared independents on where they stand against the Single Mother Test. Every party was asked the same five questions, on identical terms, with the criteria published in advance. Where a party did not respond, we assessed its position from published policy and public statements. “Unstated” is recorded where neither a reply nor a stated position could be found.
Note: CSMC does not endorse any political party or candidate. We encourage single mothers to read each party’s policies and to decide their preferences according to their own values.
Single Mother Stories
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