Cunliffe David: Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) — Second Reading 
Cunliffe David: Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) — Second Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3661] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Immigration) 
 on behalf of the  
Minister of Revenue 
: I move  
That the Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) be now read a second time 
. The main purpose of the bill is to get parents who are not paying their child support back into the system. In order to achieve that objective the bill contains a balanced package of incentives and controls to ensure that liable parents meet their financial obligations toward their children. 
The incentives include the write-off of certain debt penalties for parents whose payments have lapsed while the controls impose a number of conditions that parents must comply with. One of those conditions is that parents must still pay the arrears they owe including some of the penalties. Once parents enter into an agreement with the Inland Revenue Department to make payments on their current liability and arrears the incremental penalties they have previously accrued will be written off at 6-monthly review points. However if they default on their obligations they will get no relief at the next review point. Parents will then have to negotiate a new agreement with the Inland Revenue Department and comply with that before they can again qualify for a write-off of the incremental penalties they owe. That is the principal measure contained in this bill. 
The bill is aimed at reinforcing the message that whatever happens in parents’ own relationships they are responsible for their children. Children are not a commodity to be tossed aside when a relationship breaks up. At the same time the incentives in the bill do recognise the considerable financial and other pressures that liable parents can be under and therefore the bill seeks to strike a reasonable balance. In addition the bill introduces several complementary measures that again are aimed at ensuring all liable parents take financial responsibility for their children. That includes parents who deliberately structure their financial affairs to minimise the amount of child support they should pay. To counter that practice the bill strengthens the Inland Revenue Department’s ability to investigate liable parents’ financial affairs when it suspects they are paying less child support than they should be. 
 Although those measures clearly target parents who deliberately renege on their financial obligations towards their children the bill also recognises some special circumstances that justify an exemption from the payment rules. In this category the bill proposes a temporary exemption from child support payments for young parents for whom it is compulsory to be at school. If however they take on part-time or casual employment they will be required to make some contribution to the support of their child. The second exemption contained in the bill relates to the victims of sexual offences. The bill proposes a permanent exemption from child support payment requirements for that group. Those people should not be further victimised by being required to pay child support for a child born as a result of a sexual crime. 
The remaining measures in the bill are of a pragmatic or administrative nature. They include new provisions relating to the acceptance of overseas birth documentation the introduction of a new administrative review procedure and the introduction of new appeal rights for both parties following an administrative review. 
In reporting back to the House the Social Services Committee has recommended only minor administrative changes to the provisions in the bill. The first change defers the start date for allocating payments to custodial parents for 2 months following the date of assent. That is necessary in order to allow for changes to be made to the processing systems. The second change recommended by the committee refines the formula for the write-off of incremental penalties. The third change allows the offsetting of child support payments to be automated when both parents are liable for child support and one parent is in receipt of a social security benefit. The fourth and final change recommended by the committee is a new provision to ensure that living allowances are correctly inflation-adjusted in future years. 
In bringing the Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) to its second reading I wish to express my gratitude and the gratitude of the Minister of Revenue for the committee’s detailed consideration of the bill which I now commend to the House.