31st Jul 2019, 4:32 PM – Senate Motions - Parentsnext Program - Privacy waivers

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by WA Senator Rachel Siewert (Greens), which means it passed. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own but are politically influential because they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the majority of ParentsNext participants are women,

(ii) the Australian Human Rights Commission has stated that ParentsNext is not compatible with human rights, and

(iii) despite recommendations in the report of the Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into ParentsNext (the Senate inquiry), some participants are still being misled into believing that privacy waivers are compulsory, and pressured into signing them or risk loss of their income;

(b) recognises that the overwhelming evidence presented to the Senate inquiry into the program recommended that ParentsNext not continue in its current form; and

(c) calls on the Federal Government to urgently sanction providers who are pressuring program participants into signing privacy waivers, and implement the recommendations of the Senate inquiry.