Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

Following on from the government’s major 2006 legislation implementing the recommendations of the Ministerial Taskforce on Child Support chaired by Professor Patrick Parkinson, this follow-up bill—the Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Legislation Amendment (Child Support Reform Consolidation and Other Measures) Bill 2007consolidates the changes and makes a variety of other minor amendments to Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs portfolio legislation. Most of the consolidation amendments provide administrative and implementation details of the new policies passed by the parliament. Various consequential amendments and minor refinements are needed for the implementation of the new child support formula on 1 July 2008.

With the benefit of a few months’ experience of operation, some of the processes relating to review of child support decisions by the Social Security Appeals Tribunal are being clarified, and the changed arrangements with the courts refined. Child support agreements between parents are being better supported and strengthened, and their interaction with family tax benefit clarified. Technical details, such as how the two child support acts interact, are being addressed, and consequential amendments are being made to taxation legislation.

The new child support formula is being modified in one significant aspect. The task force’s finding of differing costs for children at different ages is being better reflected in situations in which the children are in different houses. In late 2004, the Child Support Legislation Amendment Bill was introduced, containing child support proposals unrelated to the task force reforms. This bill relocates many amendments from the 2004 bill which will now no longer be needed. With appropriate adjustments to reflect the changes made as a result of the task force’s reforms, most of these proposals can now proceed.

The 2004 bill dealt with Australia’s international obligations to certain other countries in assessing and enforcing child support liabilities across jurisdictions. The bill moves the measures from their current location in regulations into the primary child support legislation in satisfaction of an undertaking to do so given when they were enacted. However, after some years of experience with their operation, the opportunity is also taken to refine some of the aspects of the provisions.

The 2004 bill measures also include several amendments applying where one of the parties to a child support case wishes to seek review of any decision about whether one of the parties is a parent of the child. To improve equity in access to court between the two parties, some minor streamlining refinements are also being made to the internal review system for child support decisions generally.

The last of the 2004 bill measures are of a minor policy or technical nature and are generally to address anomalies in the current system or improve aspects of child support administration. For example, in many cases a parent unhappy with a child support decision will seek review of the decision. In circumstances in which the decision will not be changed—for example, because the decision has already been reviewed—the objection will no longer be required to be served on the other parent.

This bill also includes several family assistance amendments, some of them associated with the child support reforms. For example, refinements are made to certain elements of the formula used to work out the notional amount of maintenance income that an individual is taken to have received under a child support agreement or court order where there is an underpayment of child support registered for collection by the Child Support Agency. It is also being clarified that maintenance income received by a payee for one or more children would reduce the payee’s amount of family tax benefit part A above the base rate for those children only. The maintenance income tax provisions for family tax benefit are also being refined. This is partly to reflect the new treatment under the child support reforms of child support agreements and lump sum child support.

Amendments consequential to the child support reforms are also being consolidated in relation to various social security and veterans entitlements payments. In particular, remote area allowance is being extended so that parents with regular care of a child—that is, care of between 14 and 35 per cent—continue to receive the allowance after the 1 July 2008 changes to family tax benefit.

Unrelated amendments to the baby bonus provisions will formally rename the payment as the ‘baby bonus’ rather than the ‘maternity payment’, in line with most people’s understanding. Under-18-year-old claimants will be paid the baby bonus in 13 instalments rather than in a lump sum, and registration of birth as a condition of eligibility for the baby bonus will be introduced.

Under this bill, the usual 13-week period for full payment of family tax benefit while temporarily outside Australia will be extended for members of the Australian Defence Force and certain Australian Federal Police personnel of the International Deployment Group who are deployed overseas as part of their duties and, as a result, remain overseas for longer than 13 weeks.

Recent disasters such as Cyclone Larry have shown that the rebuilding efforts of a disaster affected community are stretched and a year is not long enough to allow complete recovery. The bill will extend the current 12-month principal home temporary absence rules for absences of up to 24 months for people who have suffered loss or damage to their homes due to a disaster. The bill will also assist people who cannot purchase or build a new home within 12 months due to factors beyond their control by extending the asset test exemption of principal home sale proceeds from 12 months to up to 24 months.

The bill will make minor refinements to the operation of the income stream provisions of the social security and veterans’ means tests. Lastly, the claim rules for the new Australian government disaster recovery payment are being adjusted so they work correctly for non-resident citizens.

I will just add a point of clarification. Both Senator Moore and Senator Ursula Stephens provided commentary earlier today in regard to the National Stakeholder Engagement Group. Just for the record, the child support National Stakeholder Engagement Group has met twice this year, not once. The first meeting in 2007 was on 2 March 2007, with the second on 6 June 2007. I understand that a further two meetings are scheduled for August and September 2007.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.