There's no dispute that a good job can break the poverty cycle for a single-parent family.
However that should not be at the cost of creating a whole new generation of latch-key children.
The Federal Government’s insistence that, to satisfy Centrelink, single parents must work for at least 30 hours per week, once their youngest child reaches the age of eight, has pitfalls for those families and society.
No one wants people sitting endlessly on Centrelink benefits, but a single parent on low wages, paying more than half of their income on rent, and without family support, may simply be unable to afford the cost of sending children to before and after-school care.
Parents must balance providing economic security for their children with ensuring they are properly supervised and cared for.
It is punitive to punish parents caught in this dilemma.
The digital age has opened up some new opportunities for family friendly jobs, as our story on page six shows, but the Eurobodalla still comes up short.
Asking a single parent to accept a job where the wages are so low that they cannot afford childcare is a trap we would do well to avoid.
Telling single parents to find work is all very well, but if family friendly jobs are not there, what is the point of punishing them?
