In Australia, the Child Support Registrar of the Department of Human Services (‘the Registrar’) is central authority responsible for overseeing the administration of child support and maintenance obligations. The administration and collection of child support is primarily pursuant to two pieces of legislation – the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 (Cth) and the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 (Cth) – and their supporting regulations. The Australian framework provides for two parallel structures for child maintenance, being an administrative assessment regime known as child support and child maintenance arrangements through the Family Courts.

The Australian legislative regime uses the terminology of ‘payer’ being the party with a maintenance liability, and ‘payee’ being the party who is in receipt of maintenance. This is the terminology that will be used in this paper.

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