Parliamentary Committee to hear evidence against discriminatory ParentsNext program

Today the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights will hear evidence into the Morrison Government’s punitive ParentsNext program, which makes life harder for mums with young children.

Of the tens of thousands of people forced to participate in the program, 95 percent are women and 81 percent are single mothers. The program forces women with babies and toddlers to complete "activities", many of which are demeaning, stressful and inconvenient, or face having their parenting payments cut.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers subjected to the program have their parenting payments cut more often, leaving many families without money for food.

The National Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services Forum, representing 14 member organisations nationally supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at risk of family violence, and the Human Rights Law Centre, made a submission to the inquiry into ParentsNext, recommending the program be abandoned and replaced with voluntary, evidence-based programs which support, rather than punish, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents in particular.

The Human Rights Law Centre will give evidence at today’s hearing.

Antoinette Braybrook, Chair of the National Family Violence Prevention Legal Services Forum, said:

“The Government must abandon the ParentsNext program. ParentsNext is not helping, it is only pushing mothers deeper into poverty and making their lives harder.

“Poverty is not a choice, it is direct result of systemic failure.

“The ParentsNext program is having a disproportionate and punitive impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. It discriminates against our people. It puts our women and children in vulnerable positions.

“Women who have experienced or are at risk of family violence need support, not rigid bureaucratic hurdles and onerous reporting requirements. These requirements are setting our women up to fail and financially punishing them for doing so.

“Instead of imposing mandatory, compliance-based programs on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents that only marginalise them further, the Government should work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak bodies to deliver specialist, culturally-safe and holistic support services.”

Meena Singh, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, who will appear at the inquiry today, said:

"The ParentsNext program is fundamentally flawed and should be scrapped. Rather than offering the support families actually need, it forces parents to give up important time with their children for activities that may not actually lead to jobs.

“The program values paid employment over the crucial role parents, particularly mothers, play in the early years of their children’s lives. Rather than micro-managing women’s lives, the Morrison Government should be thanking them for the endless hours of unpaid care work they do.

“We don’t need another inquiry to tell us that ParentsNext is discriminatory and doesn’t work. Threatening to cut off vital support payments doesn’t help anyone return to work, and it is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are being punished the most.”

The inquiry was triggered after the Australian Government introduced changes to the eligibility criteria for ParentsNext without addressing the discriminatory and punitive aspects of the program identified in a 2019 Senate inquiry, which recommended that the program be abandoned.

Media contact:

Evan Schuurman, Media and Communications Manager, 0406 117 937, evan.schuurman@hrlc.org.au