Child Support Legislation amiss

The concept of Child Support Legislation is for child support matters to stay out of the courts. There are literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of parents, whom have private child support agreements without their children being registered with the CSA. These parents, can and do abide by informal agreements without a need for government or court intervention. These agreements are formally recognised by every child related government department except the CSA.

Parents have a right not to register a child with the CSA, but the way the legislation stands, the CSA will not recognise the child of a private agreement if another child is registered with them from a different relationship. This lack of recognition has the effect of a parent being assessed by the CSA as only being liable for registered children. If a parent opposes registering their other children, they face extra financial burden. This situation attacks the welfare of all except the payee parent with registered children.

To overcome this inequality and extra fiscal burden, a parent has no choice but to comply with the CSA, submitting to their bullying tactics. This in turn may create other problems, such as animosity between the parents if one or both are opposed to registering their children. Obviously, such a scenario would have detrimental consequences on a post separation relationship.

The faulty legislation takes from the childs parents the right to have a private agreement without a third party affecting the arrangement. A right parents should be freely given, not denied. The legislation fails the children, it fails to recognise a child, siblings. It rewards a parent whom cannot come to an amicable agreement and penalises a parent who can. The CSA blames the legislation and will not be flexible and utilise their powers to rectify the fault. Parents are being bullied into registering children or be penalised for not doing so.

The right of the parents to make a decision in the best interests of their children is compromised. Under these circumstances the welfare of children is being shamefully ignored. A right to be recognised without resorting to court, costing parents and/or the tax payers thousands of dollars is denied. At the end of the day court action will not change legislation that affects many or the CSA's view, only maybe individual circumstances, as there is no guarantee a court will correct this omission in legislation

This issue has been raised at the highest levels within the CSA, yet the CSA have done nothing about it. The message is clear, they want to maximise control of the financial affairs of parents whom separate, in doing so protecting their own jobs at an unfathomable cost to parents and children.