When child support is not paid, the impact can be profound. I know that from talking to parents in my community. When the system itself can be used as a tool for further harassment, coercion or financial abuse, we have an obligation to do better. This is why this bill, the Child Support and Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Ending Financial Abuse in the Child Support Scheme No. 1) Bill 2026, is important to me. My commitment to this issue has also been informed by the work I have been able to do in Dunkley with people working directly with victims, survivors and families.

I recently had the opportunity to host Minister Plibersek in Dunkley, visiting Family Life and the Orange Door. Those visits were valuable because they took the conversation out of Canberra and put it where it belongs: the people doing the work and the families who depend on these services. Family Life has had an important place in our community. The Orange Door is another critical part of the local response to family and domestic violence.

When you spend time with frontline workers and survivors you quickly understand that family violence is not confined to one part of a person's life. It affects housing, employment, children's wellbeing and financial security, and those pressures can follow a family through multiple government systems. That is particularly relevant to the legislation before us today. A parent experiencing family violence may be dealing with the family law system, the social security system, housing services, legal assistance and child support all at the same time. We cannot expect someone in that situation, under that much stress, to navigate each system as though the others do not exist. The points of the system are interconnected.

That is why I have made it a priority to listen to the organisations in Dunkley that deal with these issues every day. As part of the consultation for the second national Action Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, I held a domestic and family violence round table in Dunkley with Assistant Minister Kearney. We brought together local organisations and frontline services so that their experience could help inform the next stage of the national response. I want to acknowledge Mayor Sue Baker and Paul Mercurio MP for their leadership locally in this space. What I heard at that round table reinforced something I have come to understand through my work as a local member: people working on the ground know where systems are falling short, they know where people are getting lost and they know what happens when a policy that looks sensible on paper does not work for a family experiencing violence. That local knowledge should matter when we create legislation in this place. It certainly matters to me.

The evidence from the financial abuse inquiry and the Commonwealth Ombudsman, along with the views of organisations such as Single Mother Families Australia, has highlighted the risks of financial abuse within government systems. Correspondence from constituents has also shown the human impact of these problems. We know that financial abuse can be used to maintain control long after a relationship has ended. It can take many forms: withholding money that a child is entitled to; deliberately creating uncertainty about household finances; and using administrative processes to force ongoing contact or engagement with a former partner.

A system designed to support children must not become another avenue through which harm can be inflicted. That is what schedule 1 of this bill begins to address. There is evidence that some parents use processes within the Child Support Scheme to harass the other parent, including through vexatious applications or objections that require the other parent to engage with the process. This bill gives Services Australia greater discretion to refuse certain applications where proceeding would cause harm. It also allows some objections to be dismissed without involving the other parent where there is little prospect of success or where the objection would have minimal impact on the child support case. Those changes matter, because a process can become a form of pressure. For someone who has experienced family violence, another request for information or another requirement to engage with a former partner may carry consequences that are not immediately visible to the person administering the system.

The bill also makes important changes to how information is exchanged. Currently, when a parent seeks a change of assessment, both parents may be required to provide detailed personal and financial information. There is a legal requirement that entire copies of documents provided by parents are exchanged with the other parent. That can mean sensitive personal information is shared more widely than is necessary. In some circumstances, it can deter a parent from seeking a change altogether. In the worst cases, it can create a physical safety risk, and that is not good enough.

People should not have to decide between seeking a fair child support assessment and protecting their own safety. Under this bill, Services Australia decision-makers will have greater— (Quorum formed)When someone is leaving an abusive relationship, financial independence can be one of the biggest barriers they face. We cannot talk seriously about family violence prevention while ignoring the economic circumstances that can make it harder for someone to leave or establish a safe and stable home. It is something I have been seeing reflected in the work being done in Dunkley, and it is something that this parliament needs to continue addressing.

There is also an international dimension to this legislation. Schedule 3 will make it easier for parents in certain overseas jurisdictions to access the Australian child support system. It will allow direct applications in appropriate circumstances and make clear that an Australian parent cannot simply escape their financial responsibilities to a child because that child was born overseas. Again, the principle is simple: children should not miss out on the financial support they are entitled to because of an international border.

For me, the importance of this legislation comes back to Dunkley. I represent a community where people are working hard to raise their children and build safe and secure lives but where regrettably we have some of the highest levels of domestic and family violence in the state, leading to single-parent families. When a system intended to provide support is instead being used to create further stress and harassment, the government needs to intervene and step in. That is why I welcome the government's broader investment in this area. The additional $182 million in the 2026-27 budget is part of a reform program intended to provide the child support scheme with the initial assessment through to payment and compliance. Since 2022, the government has: expanded paid parental leave to 26 weeks, including superannuation; extended access to the parenting payment for eligible parents with children up to the age of 14; and expanded childcare support. Those policies are connected by a belief that families should have the support they need to give children a secure start in life. Child support is part of that—

Debate interrupted.