Child Support

For too long people suffering as a result of family separation have been kept away from the public gaze. Your newspaper deserves praise for bringing the heartache and tragedy of those who unfortunately find themselves as clients of the Family Court and Child Support Agency to the fore. ('Problem' pa

Attorney General Daryl Williams wants to jail more mums and dads who defy family law. But as John Stapleton reports, critics say it is the system that is at fault.

The promise of fairer child-support rules has been dashed by an unfair and restrictive regulation enforced by the Child Support Agency, according to the Men's Rights Agency. The law was changed last year to, among other things, allow paying parents to divert up to 25 per cent of their child support

Attorney General Daryl Williams has been accused of deliberately misleading a Government Senator over plans to jail parents who fall behind in child-support payments. Prominent advocacy group, the Men's Rights Agency, claimed yesterday Mr Williams was wrong when he said tough new jailing provisions

The Senate has rejected most of the changes contained in the child support legislation that would benefit paying parents. The Child Support Amendment Bill (No 2) 2000 was to provide for a reduction in child support, by acknowledging that there is a cost involved in caring for children during contact

Since the long-awaited, disappointing changes to child support were accepted by the Senate (December 1998) we have been inundated with queries, especially for the start dates. Here they are, together with a brief summary of the changes. CSA expects most of the items to come into affect on 1st July 1

The Prime Minister, John Howard said during a Cairns radio interview that the Government MIGHT consider new measures for the child support scheme in next month's budget . "Fathers force PM to review child support".

Tony Smith MP 1998 - There is no area of the public service that is growing at a faster rate than the area of the Child Support Agency. It has produced more heartache, more conflict, severed more families, driven more people to suicide, provoked more people to despair, alienated more children from t