Dunne Peter: Child Support Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDunne Peter: Child Support Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 09 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9155. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Revenue): With a great deal of pleasure I moveThat the Child Support Amendment Bill be now read a third time. The measures that are proposed in this bill bring our child support scheme up to date and make it much fairer for the 210000 children and families who are involved in the scheme. Since the current child support arrangements were introduced in 1992 child support has been a backstop for families when separated parents are unable to reach agreement over the financial support of their children. But times have changed since 1992 and the purpose of this bill is to update the scheme so that it better reflects the social changes that have occurred in parenting and workforce participation over the past 20 years. That includes a new child support calculation formula which recognises the different circumstances of parents today; the latest research available on how much it costs to raise a child; and improvements to the payment penalty and debt rules in order to reduce the risk of parents dropping out of the system because they are simply overwhelmed by the growing burden of debt. They are the main features of the bill but its underlying principles are simple: that child support payments are fairly calculated and collected for the benefit of the children they are intended for and that parents continue to take financial responsibility for their children when a relationship breaks down.I feel particularly strongly about that latter point. About 40 percent of the correspondence that I receive as Minister of Revenue relates to child support. I am shocked at the number of parents who want to deny any responsibility for their children because the relationship may have been a long time ago. The majority of parents fully understand their responsibilities and they do attempt to adhere to them and that is good. But there are those unfortunately who seem to think this is the most ultimate case of out of sight out of mind. I am grateful to those good loyal hard-working parents who want to see a fair system and to the many others who took the opportunity through the extensive consultation process associated with the development of this bill for their input. I am also grateful for the efforts of officials across several agencies who collaborated on the policy development work and the legal drafters who worked on the detail of this legislation.This has been a long journey. It began in 2008 during the term of the previous Labour Government. It saw a discussion paper issued around the time that the Government changed. It saw the legislation that arose from that discussion process introduced in I think from memory 2009. The select committee process took place following that and now it is passing through the House. The first set of changes will take effect from April 2014 and the second set a year later. We still have a long way to go. But as this bill now stands we are a lot closer I think to achieving better and more equitable outcomes for the children and the parents who are involved in the child support scheme.I want to make this point as I have made at every stage of this debate: child support is not a default position. It is the backstop when things fail. The emphasis has to be on parents seeking to reach equitable and cooperative agreements amongst themselves. We have got to stop this mentality of simply leaving it all to child support because that is where the divisions arise and that is where the tensions occur. I want to see much greater emphasis placed on parents reaching their own mutually acceptable arrangements. I know this was a point that came through very strongly during the Social Services Committee’s consideration of the bill. I thank the committee members for their efforts for their consideration of the legislation and for the recommendations to change the bill in various areas that they proposed.Child support is a vexed area. It is not one that you can ever legislate for every circumstance because of the nature of the way in which families form and relationships occur. But what this legislation can do at best is provide a framework. This is what I think we have achieved in this bill. There will always be those who will fit at the boundary or not fit or who will feel that the system somehow is unfair in respect of their circumstances. There is not a great deal we can do about that. The challenge that we face in looking at changes to the legislation—and it was a point that was highlighted by the Opposition at several stages during the debate—is simply this: we have a system at the moment under the current legislation that in my view is unnecessarily inflexible. It imposes a very rigid formula which takes little account of individual circumstances. That is easy to run because you just simply draw the line and say: “This is the side of it that you fall. If you feel aggrieved tough.”The criticism we faced during the development of this bill and at the select committee was that we were going to be introducing a more complicated system. That is the trade-off for one that is more flexible for one that takes greater account of individual circumstances and of individual stages of a child’s life and the formula reflects payments accordingly. I say to those who say that the system will now be more complex and then say you have got to get an accountant or a lawyer to work your way through it that is absolute bunkum. You do not. But I say to people who run that line you cannot then argue for a fairer more responsive system without accepting that flexibility brings its own challenges. No one—no one—stands up for child support as it currently stands. It is difficult to administer. We have high levels of non-compliance. We have aggrieved parents on both sides of the argument. What this legislation does by recognising the change in circumstances over the last 20 years by increasing the formula for shared parenting arrangements and by also addressing as I say the application of the child support formula itself is make a genuine attempt to recognise the circumstances of the parents who take advantage of that system.But I close on this point. I am delighted at the end of what for me has been a 6-year journey on this bill to see it is going to pass tonight. I am really delighted about that. But I want to send a message to all parents out there that in the situation of a relationship breaking down whatever aggravation there might be or whatever bitterness might surround the situation your primary responsibility is to your children. And your primary responsibility both of you is to sit down and try to negotiate arrangements that provide for the effective care and maintenance of those children. If that cannot be achieved then child support is there to help you. But do not simply look at the system and say “That’s the default. We just go there automatically and we both end up mutually unhappy.” because the long-term losers from that are very clear to identify—the kids. And the kids are the one group who do not choose their parents they do not choose their circumstances but they are influenced dramatically by them.Let us not kid ourselves that this legislation or any legislation is the ultimate answer but this bill recognising contemporary situations is a vast improvement on the current Act. It is one that will be much fairer in many respects for more people. It is in tune with the mood of contemporary society. I think it is a good step forward and I am delighted that Parliament is going to give it its third reading this evening.