Media Release
30 May 2008
Child Support Agency turns 20
Minister for Human Services, Senator Joe Ludwig, today said the Child Support Agency (CSA) should be recognised on its twentieth birthday for managing one of the most successful child support schemes in the world.
“Since being established by the Hawke government in 1988, the Child Support Scheme has played an enormous role in improving the living conditions of Australian children and deserves its wide community support,” said Senator Ludwig.
The creation of the Child Support Scheme on 1 June 1988 was a key social policy achievement of the Hawke/Keating Governments.
“During the 1970s it was recognised that children from separated families were often suffering a loss of living standards because one of their parents was no longer contributing financially.”
“Since the start of the scheme in 1988, the CSA has assisted parents to pay $25.6 billion in child support obligations to help support their children,” Senator Ludwig said.1
“It’s important to remember that most separated parents in Australia do the right thing and pay their child support. This also reflects a highly professional effort by CSA staff over many years.”
Long term staff
Assistant General Manager, Greg Amie-Fong, who is one of CSA’s longest serving employees, said he remembers working for the CSA in its earliest days when managing the CSA State Office in Brisbane.
“At the end of CSA’s first 12 months of operation, there were 23,380 cases administered by 198 staff. Today the CSA has over 4,200 staff supporting around 1.5 million customers and more than 1.1 million children,” said Mr Amie-Fong.
“We’ve come a long way in many ways since then,” he said. “In contrast to our early years we are now much more customer focussed and actively seek to work with separated parents for the benefit of their children.”
“It’s been a good place to work as well. In my experience as an employee, I’ve always found the CSA to be innovative in what it has done for customers and staff.”
New reforms
On July 1 this year the final stage of the Child Support Scheme Reforms will be implemented, marking the next significant phase in the growth and development of the scheme.
Senator Ludwig said the July 1 reforms include a new formula to calculate Child Support payments, as part of the most sweeping changes to be made to the scheme since it first began.
“The new formula will better reflect the actual costs of raising children, take account of the fact that older children cost more, treat both parents’ incomes and living costs equally, and make sure that children from first and second families are treated more equally,” he said.
Parents who want more information can contact the CSA on 131 272 or visit the scheme reforms website at www.csa.gov.au/schemereforms.
1 This $25.6 billion includes about $770.8 million of liabilities that the CSA has discharged, in agreement with receiving parents, as satisfying a child support debt.
Media Contact: Joe Scavo—0413 800 757.
Photo-opportunity for Child Support Agency’s 20th birthday
The Child Support Agency (CSA) will celebrate its 20th birthday on the 1st of June 2008.
To help celebrate, the Minister for Human Services, Senator Joe Ludwig, Matt Miller, General Manager of the CSA, and CSA staff will cut a cake at the national office in Canberra on Monday 2nd of June 2008. The Minister will also present a certificate to a staff member who has been with the CSA since the beginning.
Senator Ludwig said the Child Support Agency (CSA) should be recognised on its 20th birthday for managing one of the best child support schemes in the world.
| Date: | Monday 2nd June |
| Time: | 12 noon |
| Location: | Child Support Agency Aviation House 16 Furzer Street Phillip ACT |
For all media enquiries, including requests for interviews, please call Litonya Shallcross at the Child Support Agency media team—(02) 6272 8367.