Social Services Legislation Amendment (Child Support Measures) 2023

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Social Services Legislation Amendment (Child Support Measures) 2023

## What it does

This law makes three technical changes to how child support is collected. It allows people with departure prohibition orders (travel bans for unpaid child support) to get temporary certificates to leave Australia if they can prove they'll return and pay what they owe. It also expands the rules so employers can withhold child support payments more broadly, and changes how income is calculated for determining child support amounts.

## Why it matters

These changes aim to make the child support system work better—allowing some flexibility for people who genuinely need to travel while strengthening collection methods for unpaid support. For parents relying on child support payments, better enforcement and clearer income rules could mean more reliable payments.

## Key details

- **Departure certificates**: People banned from leaving Australia can now apply for temporary permission to travel if they provide security (like a bond) guaranteeing their return, but only if the Registrar thinks they'll clear their debt soon.

- **Employer withholding**: Expanded to capture more situations where employers should deduct child support from wages.

- **Commencement dates**: The travel and employer withholding changes start on the first 1 January or 1 July after Royal Assent; income calculation changes start on the first 1 July after that.

Official Description

Amends the: Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 to: enable the Child Support Registrar to use existing employer withholding mechanisms to collect deductible liabilities where a person’s child support liability has ended but they have outstanding child support and related debts; allow the registrar to refuse to issue a departure authorisation certificate where a security is offered unless satisfied that the person will make suitable arrangements to pay their outstanding liabilities; and provide the registrar with an additional method for working out a person’s taxable income for a particular year where they are satisfied that the person is not required to lodge a tax return.

Committee Referrals

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights; Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

29 Mar 2023

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Outcome date

23 June 2023

Last checked by Crossbench

yesterday

Full text indexed

yesterday

🗳️

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

Constituent votes

Voting is closed — this bill has been decided by parliament.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.

🔒 Voting closed — this bill has been decided by parliament