Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all those who have contributed in this place to this important debate on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Child Support Measures) Bill 2023. The majority of parents who receive child support are on low incomes. Most of them are single mothers. It matters that they receive the right amount of child support, paid on time, because the consequences are real if they don't.

The Albanese government is committed to improving the child support system over the long term, and this bill is an important first step. Firstly, it will strengthen debt collection powers to make sure parents and children get the support they need. Secondly, it will improve the quality of assessments under the scheme, making arrangements fairer and more accurate. From 1 July 2023, this bill will improve debt collection by allowing child support debts to be deducted from parents' wages, even when the child support case has ended. This is a sensible and important step towards reducing the $1.69 billion of outstanding child support debt that has built up over the last 35 years. In 2021-22, $743 million in child support payments were collected from the wages of 91,000 parents. Over the next two years, we estimate that expanding employer withholding will recover up to $164 million in unpaid child support from around 18,000 parents. That is money owed to single parents and their children.

Because of this bill, parents who have been issued with a departure prohibition order will need to make suitable arrangements to repay their outstanding child support if they want to travel overseas. No longer will they be able to exploit a loophole that allows them to provide a refundable security to travel instead of paying their child support debt. While only a small number of parents are responsible for this, it does contribute to a large portion of the debt pool, owing on average $43,500 each. These parents are deliberately and repeatedly avoiding their child support obligations, and that is unacceptable.

This bill will also make the income assessment processes fairer and more accurate, protecting our lowest income parents who are not required to lodge a tax return by introducing a new provisional income equal to the self-support amount: $27,508 in 2023. Under current rules, if parents who are not required to lodge a tax return do not advise Services Australia of their income, a higher provisional income can be applied. Using an income that is too high means receiving parents miss out on child support and paying parents are assessed to pay an amount they simply can't afford. This bill means assessments will be more accurate, and we know that parents are more likely to pay when their child support assessment is fair. This will significantly increase the accuracy of child support assessments, prevent debts and reduce income reporting requirements for about 150,000 low-income parents each year. The changes in this bill will make a real difference to the lives of single parents and their children. I thank the government and non-government members for their positive engagement with me and my office on this bill.

We also know that there's more work to be done to improve the child support scheme to better support parents. In our response to the family law inquiry, tabled in January this year, we agreed to a range of accommodations to improve the scheme over the longer term. We are committed to ensuring that single parents and their children receive the financial support they are entitled to, and that government systems don't exacerbate any abuse, including financial abuse. I look forward to continuing to work with members from all sides on this issue, so that the importance of economic security and the wellbeing of many parents and their children is furthered. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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