Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

The Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Legislation Amendment (Child Support Reform Consolidation and Other Measures) Bill 2007 is one in a series that have made significant changes to the child support arrangements in Australia. We all know that child support is a very contentious area and is often played out through conflict between parents who have split up. In such contexts it is always very important to remind ourselves of the key purpose of child support, which is, as its name implies, supporting children and what is in the interests of children. I believe we need to put that factor always front and centre whenever we consider this issue—and indeed many others, I might say. Certainly it is an unavoidable fact that family law arrangements and legislated child support requirements are often going to occur in an environment where the adults involved are not necessarily getting on terribly well and often have quite a negative relationship with each other—although I should also point out, of course, that that is far from universal. Many people do manage separations, with or without children involved, quite effectively and very well. But sometimes that does not happen, and in those circumstances it is important that, in amongst all of the difficulties, the interests of the children involved are put first and foremost.

Some of the changes in this legislation are positive ones and do clarify the operation of the whole scheme. But it does remain a concern for the Democrats that we are not sure of the full consequences. Indeed, the entire committee looking into this legislation made clear by its concluding remarks that it recognised that ‘the true impact of many of the changes will not be fully known until they are operating in practice’. I appreciate that, to some extent, you can never be 100 per cent sure of how things will play out, but, frankly, I think we could have done a better job and we should be doing a better job in at least having much clearer models of what is anticipated to occur in certain circumstances so that we are operating less in the dark in making these sorts of changes. That remains a continuing concern to the Democrats. Whilst we notice that the changes and their consequences will be monitored closely—and that is certainly welcome—we do believe that more should have been done to assess in advance what the consequences would be.

The issue about the impact on principal carers that is raised by Senator Siewert in her minority report is also a concern that I share regarding the income support definition. That, to me, seems to provide a circumstance where, as the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children stated, ‘the half-time children in the household of the person who is not deemed under social security law to be the principal carer will not attract the protections available to principal carers in the income support system’, which will leave them more likely to be disadvantaged.

The issue of the baby bonus is also contained within this legislation, although it is really a separate matter to child support changes. I must say that I am concerned about separating out and introducing a form of age based discrimination in this area. I think there are arguments for having payments made periodically in all cases, if we are going to move down that path, rather than singling out solely those who are under the age of 18, particularly given that there are no opportunities for flexibility about that. Frankly, I think that is a form of discrimination that is not warranted by the evidence that I have seen to date.

The legislation as a whole does have quite a number of different changes that are made within it. It should be noted that, in amongst all of those, really only a few parts were the subject of most of the focus and comment produced from the community during the committee inquiry process. However, the fact that those concerns only addressed a small number of issues should not therefore mean that those issues are seen as unimportant. I believe that they merit further concern and further acknowledgement than is being given by the federal government.

These changes will continue to be monitored as further changes are rolled out, and there will be further changes coming on line next year, so we are in a continual state of change. It is important that we continue to monitor that, because it is being done alongside other changes to our income support laws, some of which will also significantly disadvantage people who are already not particularly well off. We need to be watching very closely to see how they go. There is a lot of talk these days about how magnificent the economy supposedly is, and I agree that there are some good-looking numbers around the place and there are some good outcomes for individuals, but we must also acknowledge that there are many, many people who, however good you want to say the economy is, are not doing terribly well. There are significant numbers of Australians—including many, many children—who are in poverty, and significant numbers who are homeless.

The fact that the economy is going well and that unemployment is low is a good thing, but if we are not able to address wider economic factors, like the worst housing affordability crisis we have had in over a generation, then all the good economic figures in the world cannot hide the fact that it is still not delivering basic security for very many Australians. I would suggest that that is a key reason for this apparent bafflement amongst some of the coalition people like Mr Abbott and others, who cannot seem to understand why people might not all, automatically, be going to vote Liberal, when they think the economy is going so fabulously. The simple fact is that for many people the economy is not delivering security for them and for their children. Those people are often forgotten. They are rarely referred to in all of the talk about economic statistics, but they are very real. We need to remember that. And we need to remember, when we are looking at legislation like this, that we are not just talking about theories or abstract policies; we are talking about human beings. Many of those human beings, particularly single parents, are struggling enormously in Australia at the moment.

Debate interrupted.