July 22 9:34 AM
AUTHOR: Peter Dunne
Child Support has been in the news recently. Here is my position on the current debate:
• Every child has a right to the love, affection and care of both their parents, whatever their situation, but no child has any control over the circumstances in which they are raised.
• All parents, living together or apart, are responsible for their care of their children.
• If parents separate, it is their joint and primary responsibility to make suitable arrangements for the care and ongoing support of their children. They have no right to take-out the emotion of their break-up on their children.
• The state’s Child Support scheme should be the back-up for when these arrangements fail, not the automatic default position.
I think there are problems with the way our current Child Support scheme works – it is too inflexible, fails to take sufficient account of today’s social circumstances, and does not do enough to encourage shared care between parents. As Minister of Revenue (responsible for collecting child support payments) I have been working on a review of the scheme since 2008. Last year, the Cabinet deferred my proposals for change, so I have been working on revised plans which I hope to put forward shortly.
My focus is simple – the wellbeing of the children, for they are the most vulnerable ones when relationships break up. But sadly, too often, child support is more often about the tug-of-war between embittered parents, than the wellbeing of their children. I want to change that.