Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition will be supporting the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Child Support Measures) Bill 2023. This bill works to improve debt recovery and help prevent future debts for low-income parents. It therefore will have the coalition's support. In fact, two of the measures in the bill are measures that were previously announced by the former coalition government as part of the 2021-22 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook that were not legislated prior to the last federal election. These coalition measures strengthen Australia's child support framework, and it is pleasing to see the current government recognise the hard work of the former minister in this area by legislating these very important reforms.

The former coalition government committed $7.8 million to strengthening child support compliance activities, enabling child support debts to be recovered in a wider range of circumstances. This included allowing Services Australia to dock parents' pay to repay child support in more circumstances, including after a child turns 18, which overturns the existing loophole where it is effectively case closed once a child turns 18. At that point, there are limited ways to recover a debt.

The former coalition government also worked to strengthen the departure prohibition order system, which prevents parents who fail to pay child support from leaving Australia. This is another measure within the bill before us today. The coalition government again worked to give Services Australia discretion in those circumstances to refuse an exemption if they have reason to believe the parent is likely to shirk their responsibilities and fail to pay back the remainder of the debt when they return to Australia. Under the coalition, since July 2017 5,394 parents were issued with a travel ban, enabling the recovery of nearly $100 million and ensuring to a greater extent the wellbeing and economic security of those children who were affected by the relevant family breakdown. It's expected that these changes will recover up to $164 million in debt owed to parents and their children.

We understand that family breakdowns are incredibly difficult, so child support is in place to ensure that, no matter where or with whom they live, children that are affected by family breakdown remain to the greatest extent financially secure. We make no apologies for employing and indeed putting on the table these tough measures to ensure that child support is paid, because, again, parents who shirk their responsibilities are just depriving their own children of the financial support that will ultimately give them a better life. We recognise that most parents do the right thing and fulfil their child support obligations. Since its introduction in 1988, the government has transferred a remarkable $33 billion in child support payments. When parents don't pay their child support on time, we all know in this place that it has a real and material impact on the financial security of single parents and their children. These measures will therefore go some way to closing loopholes and providing Services Australia with additional capabilities to stop those seeking to shirk their responsibility and ultimately to provide for their children—to provide the support that they deserve and need. The coalition remains committed, just as we were when in government, to seeing parents and children receive the financial support they're entitled to. For that reason, we'll commend the government and commend and support this bill in this chamber and in the other place.

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