| News index | Canberra Times Monday 31 May 1999, pg 2
MPs URGE 'FAIRNESS' IN CHILD SUPPORT By Frank Cassidy A call for more fairness and equity in the Federal Government's troubled child-support system has won support form both Opposition and government ranks. the chairman of the parliamentary committee that spent 2 ½ years scrutinising family law matters, Labor's Roger Price, said overhauling the child-support payments system was ' absolutely overdue", and the National Party's Bob Katter agreed. The politicians were responding to fears expressed by parents' groups that tough new rules increasing some child-support payments would cause widespread hardship. "We need to have a fresh start on introducing fairness and equity into the system," Mr Price said. Mr Katter called the system "brutal" "It's just a tragedy in an era when we talk about the sanctity and importance of families that neither society nor the Government will face up to the reality of separating families," Mr Price said. The Government had made some important changes but they fell far short of the minimum needed to restore fairness and equity" Mr Price said the big losers under the current scheme were the children. "When you cause financial hardship, you are creating a level of hostility between parents that can only impact on the children." It was no good having an efficient administration and a friendly scheme if it was inherently unfair. Mr Katter said the brutality of the system lay in the legislation. "We have identified six suicides, one attempted suicide and two potential suicides due to the child-support system," he said. "This is a bleeding question." Recent high-profile suicides related to child-support issues, particularly the treatment of pre-existing debts, pointed to the need for reform. Drawing attention to the problems with the Child Support Agency had proven futile. Mr Katter said he had written to the agency with details of a particularly hopeless case but had been told there was nothing in the case that led the agency to believe the legislation should be changed. He blamed the agency's response on "insensitivity driven by feminist ideology". Fellow National Party member and head of the Prime Minister's child-support taskforce last year, said the Government had made changes. "What we did last time was a step in the right direction. We are looking for continuous improvements." |