Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak about child support. Child support is always a difficult topic. It normally involves parents and children. These are parents who perhaps can't agree on an approach moving forward to make sure children are supported. My experience is that, whatever is determined by the Child Support Agency, no-one is ever happy. That's because there is emotion involved and there are different perspectives involved. The Child Support Agency does a useful job in at least trying to find some point at which there is not too much disagreement or too much unhappiness and the children are looked after.

The way child support is calculated—some parents just agree that a particular amount is paid between the two parents, and others have special circumstances and there are special processes. But the bulk of Australians have the child support formula applied to them. That formula involves considering the income of the father, the income of the mother, the number of children and how much time each parent spends caring for the children. It is basically a formula where you put the numbers in and it pops out and says that one of the parents has to pay this and the other parent has to pay that—and therefore there will be some difference that is paid. It might end up with a father paying a mother or vice versa.

It is fair to say that 90 per cent of child support payees are women. But we should try to keep the gender out of this because it's about parents. I've indicated that the child support formula involves an understanding of the salaries on both sides. How does the Child Support Agency get those salaries? They rely on tax returns from the mother and the father. Unfortunately, we have the situation in Australia that parents are not lodging their tax returns. It is actually unlawful to not lodge a tax return. This year, where we have experienced COVID, 213,000 Child Support Agency clients have not lodged their tax return within the year, 101,000 are two years late, 152,000 are somewhere between three and five years late and 130,000 are six to 10 years late.

Parents not lodging their tax returns means the formula is wrong, the amount that is being paid by one parent to the other to support children is wrong. First, we've got to make sure the tax office enforces the law, that people are made to lodge their tax returns on time so we get the correct answer. But some people may well be gaming the system. They get a job, they get a pay rise, they get a promotion and, over time, their salary builds up. They don't lodge their tax returns, and the Child Support Agency just increments their salary in accordance with CPI. You might have a large salary earner who ends up paying far less child support than what is proper. We need to remedy that.

I've asked for this on several occasions and I have been talking to Senator Ruston. If child support payees don't want to comply with the law and lodge their tax returns, we need to put in place a punitive measure—and the same goes for people who are receiving money, because their salary affects the outcome. We have to have a punitive remedy. Maybe we'll have to pay twice as much child support or three times as much child support. But we cannot have the situation continue as it stands, because children are missing out on proper support.