Media Release

Dunne claims child support amendment formula will be fairer: Yeah Right

Long time child support reformer, Jim Nicolle, describes Peter Dunne’s claim that the new child support formula would be fairer as a ‘Tui Billboard’.

‘The proposed changes produce a complex formula based on IRD official’s guesstimates at the cost of raising children. This type of income shares child support model is designed to give a perception of fairness, perception and reality are two different things. The devil is in the detail’, observed Jim when commenting on the Ministers claim.

‘Dr Stuart Birks , Director of Centre for Public Policy Evaluation, at Massey University in his paper , An Assessment of Proposed Changes to the Child Support Formula, sums up my concern when he states ‘In summary, it is clear that costs may vary markedly across households according to circumstances and lifestyles. Any estimates of costs will be subject to large error’, commented Jim Nicolle when asked to quote research to support his Tui billboard claim.

‘This tinkering with child support is about recovering the DPB , framing dads as deadbeats and has very little to do with mums and dads providing for their children.

The provision in the bill of Henry VIII powers, to the Commissioner of IRD enabling him to bypass the normal scrutiny and transparency of parliamentary process does not bode well for parents. I suspect this legislation will, overtime, come to be known as Dunne’s Disaster”, concluded Jim Nicolle.

Jim Nicolle can be contacted on 0275058421 for further comment