MEDIA RELEASE

DADS IN DISTRESS INC Thurs 26th June 2008


On Monday 23rd June 2008 Minister Joe Ludwig announced the (GET TOUGH)
“The Child Support Agency’s Compliance Strategy for 2008-2010: Supporting parents to meet their child support responsibilities.” At the Child Support National Stakeholder Group in Parliament House.

1 - Optical surveillance program - Where separated parents tell the
CSA they are not working and cannot pay their child support but there
is evidence to indicate something else.

2 - Getting to the Assets - A new MOU with the insolvency and trustee
Service of Australia. Enforcing payment by selling of assets.

3 - New Tax return lodgement rules - ALL child support parents to lodge
tax returns unless income less than $18,252

4 - Salary sacrifice of Superannuation schemes will be added back for
calculation of income for Child Support


Tony Miller Founder/Director of Dads in Distress Inc who is a member of the CSNSEG group was present at the announcement and said he was shocked by the heavy handedness of the strategy but at the same time understood full well that a small minority were shirking their responsibilities and making it look bad for the rest of us.

The reality is although they are quoting a billion dollars of child support debt, $231 million of that is overseas debt and $255m is over 4 years old and some debt dates back nearly 20 years to the start of the scheme. It seems the majority is owed from people who are on very high incomes in private business or companies etc Mr Miller said. While this is no excuse Mr Miller said we are all now painted with the same brush when in reality it is a minority.
Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig said a small proportion of parents were not doing the right thing.

Our group promotes that as a divorced dad you have the responsibility to continue to support your children both emotionally and financially and our members are doing just that. Unfortunately many are still fighting just to see their children even though they pay child support. It’s a shame that a similar compliance scheme with the same weight has not been rolled out to combat the issue of contravention of court ordered access. A smaller program was announced recently with little fanfare, nothing as glorious as these new provisions Mr Miller said.





In the meeting Kathleen Swinbourne (Sole Parents Union) said:
Are you really serious about selling out houses from under these non payers as you have never been serious before

Matt Miller CSA said:

Selling peoples houses out from under them is a last resort. You know,
we sometimes loose the metrics that 4 out of 5 parents do the right
thing. We are very clearly serious about the overdue amounts. We must
have strong underpinning of the new reforms which are set out to make
it fairer for both payer and payee. The pay dirt here is to get people
with the capacity to pay TO pay. We have hired 120 investigators to
investigate cases.

The agency is using employment withholding to collect 30 million a month.




Tony Miller said:

When you start talking about selling out houses you could ask the same question as to how many mothers will you jail who are breaking the law in non compliance to court orders denying children the right to see their fathers.


The reality is, these new provisions will also catch out those women who are abusing the system so in effect it works both ways. It’s about our kids and making sure they are looked after. All Dads in Distress ever wanted was fairness and equity within the system. Some of us feel it still has a long way to go.

And the unfortunate result in all this is that once again the deadbeat dad syndrome will be broadcast across the media painting us all with the same brush. Most dads are good dads who love and support their children and do the right thing.

Tony Miller
Director/Founder

Dads In Distress Inc.
PO Box J395
Coffs Harbour Jetty
NSW 2450
Ph: 66 528113
Ph: 1300 853 437
MOB: 0422 105855

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Very annoying, "The Deadbeat Dad syndrome"

CSA owe me money and refuse to pay it to me.

THEY SHOULD PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH.

tony,i read your media release with interest. i wouldnt hold your breath waiting for the family court to censure mothers who break court orders.in my own case i had family court orders that my daughters mother was not to leave my then 6-7 yo daughter alone all night,i had orders that she was not to neglect and abuse my daughter,i had orders that she was not to approach and abuse witnesses who spoke up for me in court,i had orders regarding my access to my daughter.she broke every one of those orders on numerous occassions yet the court did nothing,ill bet my bottom dollar however that a father who did the same thing would soon find himself in contempt of court,i thought we were all supposed to be treated as equals under the law.it seems to me that these judges are acting in flagrant breach of our countries constitution yet they are never held accountable.

Sadly this is all to true in REALITY where the Father meets the Court's ruling,...............and differs when the Court ought to meet their Stipulation with more power and less INDIFFERENCE when the other party does as they like!
Thankfully not all are in either category, but the imbalance remains

Colin S

I've got some new ideas for strategies for them
The 'Get real' Strategy where they actually admit what they are actually doing and stop window dressing and maniputlating the figures to make an impression.
Also the 'Get a clue' strategy where they realise how inconsistant their legislation is compared to reality.
I wish I could enforce their ignorance on them the way they enforce it on me
Spike