Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to indicate that the Greens will be supporting the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Child Support Measures) Bill 2023, but I note there is so much more that needs to be done. These are three minor measures that will improve the ability of single parents and their vulnerable children to receive child support. But I think the scale of what still needs to be done is indicated by the fact that this bill is estimated to recover up to $164 million in child support debt, whereas it is estimated that there is $1.59 billion of unpaid child support. So there is an awful lot more to be done to support vulnerable single mothers and their children. We've got deception from partners; we've got unequal onus of proof; we've got ex-partners not lodging tax returns; we have got misleading on how much income they've got; we've got care arrangements being difficult to prove; and we've got really awful interactions with the family tax benefit, where single parents—mothers in particular—are presumed to be receiving child support when in fact they're not.

We know that the women this is most affecting are those that have been subject to family violence. They have left their partners, and those former partners are continuing to mistreat them and their children. So we will be supporting this bill, but we note there is still an awful lot more work that needs to be done.