Our research suggests ParentsNext needs also to be addressed .
It subjects more than 75,000 low-income parents of pre-school children, 95% of whom are female, to a compulsory, complicated and discriminatory “pre-employment program”.
In December 2018, 75,259 people were in ParentsNext: 95% women, 19% Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, 21% culturally and linguistically diverse, and 12% with a disability.
ParentsNext continues largely unreformed despite the Senate committee’s recommendation that it cease in its current form.
It is consistent with a long Australian history of blaming, punishing and stigmatising welfare recipients and single mothers in particular.