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Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Child Support

Filed under: Child Support,General — Downunder @ 9:55 am Sun 8th June 2014

The Minister for Social Services, the Hon Kevin Andrews MP, has asked the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee to inquire into the Australian Child Support Program.

Although it is not clear what the driving forces for the inquiry are this is certainly a far more substantial effort than we have seen in New Zealand.

Commenting on the inquiry, a spokesman from the Non-Custodial Parents Party, John Flanagan said “Our understanding is that this inquiry will be mainly about the following issues;”

1. Whether the payer or the payee should pay the tax on child support payments.

2. Whether overtime should be excluded from child support calculations.

3. Whether there should be a fairer cap on the maximum income to determine child support payments.
4. Whether the payer should not be penalized if the payee chooses not to work when that payee has the ability to do so.
5. Whether court-ordered custody arrangements should determine child support payments – not claims by the payee.
6. Should the overall child support system be made fairer.

Apart from receiving written submissions, the Committee will also be holding hearings in many Australian cities, which will be open to the public. As part of its hearings, the Committee will be holding “community statement sessions’, at which individuals may make short statements to the Committee about the inquiry’s terms of reference.

The Committee is expected to table its report in early 2015.

If you wish to share your personal experiences with the Committee, an online questionnaire is available here. (The Committee cannot investigate individual cases or complaints and submissions should not include personal details.)

Submissions directly addressing the terms of reference should be forwarded to the Committee no later than Friday 13 June 2014.

Any individual or organisation can make a submission to a parliamentary committee. There appears to be no requirement to be an Australian citizen or resident, and the Committee invites submissions from relatives, e.g. grandparents.

Full details regarding the submission process are available on the Australian Parliamentary website, or contact John Flangan at this email [email protected] to reach the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting).

Published submissions are available here; Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) submission is number seven.

7 Comments »

  1. Here is a tried and tested rock solid way for men to avoid paying child support in future.

    It comes from a modern day dystopian book/movie about marriage called “The fraud of the rings”

    http://www.avoiceformen.com/gynocentrism/men-shouldnt-marry/#comment-1424682579

    http://menshouldntmarry.wordpress.com/poster

    Comment by Skeptic — Sun 8th June 2014 @ 4:43 pm

  2. THE MARRIAGE DELUSION – the fraud of the rings? by Mike Buchanan

    Oliver James,a British clinical psychologist, broadcaster, and bestselling author (‘Affluenza’, ‘Britain on the Couch’, ‘They Fxxx You Up’) says of this book: “A highly original and stimulating critique of the modern ‘marriage crisis’, supported by important yet sometimes uncomfortable truths.” For many years, across the developed world, over 50% of new marriages have ended in divorce, or are predicted to do so in the fullness of time. And perhaps half the marriages that do not end in divorce are thought to be broadly unhappy. The explanations for the modern ‘marriage crisis’ usually include a widespread loss of ‘traditional values’. However, contrary to popular belief, the evidence is that marriages were no happier in former times than today. The prime drivers of a low divorce rate in former times were difficulty in obtaining divorce, and the economic dependency of women on men. In his fourth book ‘THE MARRIAGE DELUSION – the fraud of the rings?’ British writer Mike Buchanan argues that most people in the modern era are unsuited to marriage. He argues that a number of groups have an enhanced risk of being unhappy in their marriages, these groups include introverts (54% of men, 47% of women). The book covers this personality type at length and covers other issues contributing to marital unhappiness including the different natures of men and women, individualism, declining love and lust, sex, personal aptitude for marriage, mutual compatibility, the link between extraversion and adultery, religious conviction differences, the genetic link to propensity to divorce, and depression. The book concludes with a number of realistic recommendations to raise the proportion of new marriages which are happy over the long term, thereby bringing down the divorce rate.

    Comment by Downunder — Sun 8th June 2014 @ 5:05 pm

  3. Oh not another – Seen all this before – BEST Invoke 2Chronicles 7:14 and be Onward Together in CHRIST

    Comment by Jim Bailey — Mon 9th June 2014 @ 12:49 pm

  4. you’ll be surprised how corrupt the CSA is in Australia and how they mismanage money. They take money, don’t pay and expect the father to fork out more for their mismanagement of child support funds.

    Any complaints about them fall on deaf ears. They feel they are untouchable because CSA is protected by the ombudsmans office and any attempt to take them to court is thwarted by the legal aid and Legal society.

    Comment by kiranjiharr — Mon 9th June 2014 @ 6:15 pm

  5. #4 not so different from NZ, then. Any political party that promised to seriously pursue this sort of idea in NZ would get my vote for sure, it’s one of the main issues affecting me right now. Dunne had me hopeful but that quickly proved to be a disappointing exercise in half-arsedness.

    Comment by Daniel — Tue 10th June 2014 @ 11:02 am

  6. Dunne has been bullshitting blokes with that one since before the 2002 Election.

    Comment by Downunder — Tue 10th June 2014 @ 6:56 pm

  7. Public Hearing Dates

    17 Jul 2014 – Canberra (2), ACT.

    18 Jul 2014 – Melbourne, VIC.

    21 Jul 2014 – Newcastle, NSW.

    22 Jul 2014 – Queensland, QLD.

    23 Jul 2014 – Mackay, QLD.

    04 Aug 2014 – Adelaide, SA

    05 Aug 2014 – Perth, WA.

    06 Aug 2014 – Karratha, WA.

    TBA – Ballarat, VIC.

    TBA – Hobart, TAS.

    Comment by Downunder — Tue 1st July 2014 @ 9:15 am

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