Uniting Communities has made a submission to the Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs – Community Affairs Referencing Committee regarding the government’s ParentsNext program.

This submission provides responses to a number of the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference, with an emphasis on the disadvantaging effects that the ParentsNext program has on children and their parents, with particular reference to First Nations families and to sole-parenting mothers.

It is argued that the mandatory requirement for participation in the Program discriminates against parents and their children, exacerbates their existing hardship, and undermines their sense of agency and right to access social security in order to meet their basic needs.