Australia's child support system is being weaponised by financial abuse that is amplified by services Australia according to a new investigation. After examining hundreds of complaints from single parents the Commonwealth Ombudsmen has recommended new legislation and enforcement powers.
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00:00After a four month investigation and testimony from hundreds of mothers, the Commonwealth
00:07Ombudsman has damning conclusions about the child support system.
00:11Basically there's a lot of different ways you can make life very uncomfortable for your
00:15former partner and most importantly that you can actually prevent your children from receiving
00:20financial assistance.
00:21There's $1.9 billion in child support debts.
00:25The investigation documented widespread financial abuse that included parents lying about their
00:30income, parents not filing a tax return to disguise their income and parents threatening
00:36a former partner to prevent them seeking child support.
00:39This goes on for years and so it takes a huge toll on that person and it also takes a huge
00:45toll obviously on the children who are being deprived of the financial support that they
00:49need.
00:50The report found that abuse is being amplified by Services Australia, which it said is acting
00:54unfairly and unreasonably by not enforcing support payments.
00:59It also found the agency was pursuing women for tax debts based on child support income
01:04they had not always received.
01:06Services Australia will actively pursue that debt and require it to be paid even though
01:10the child support itself might not have been paid.
01:13In a statement, Services Australia said it could better support families and would swiftly implement
01:19all eight recommendations that that would require new legislation.
01:23A government spokesperson hinted that could be coming, saying the government accepted the
01:27system is traumatising women and that reforms are on the way.
01:31Change is needed.
01:32It's overdue.
01:33The system harms women and women and children are let down by, by the child support system.
01:39Advocates labelled the investigation a breakthrough for the roughly one million children who rely
01:44on child support.