Media Release Parents for Children.
28 January 2007
Dunne Urged To Stop Tinkering and Address the Root Cause of the Child Support Debt Trap.
"Having just pushed through a major amendment to the Child Support Act 1991, United Future Leader, Peter Dunne is back
to tinkering with this fundamentally flawed legislation.
His latest brilliant proposal: pass more information between Government departments on parents who, it is alleged, owe
child support and penalty payments.
This is a precursor to a law preventing these parents leaving the country. Still tinkering and not addressing the cause
of the problem, while knowing that such a measure is unlikely to decrease the level of alleged debt." Observed Mark
Shipman, of Parents for Children, when asked to comment on the changes promoted by Peter Dunne.
"The alleged debt is mostly made up of late payment penalties, and money "owed" to the government for benefit recovery,
money that will never be seen by kiwi kids. With TVNZ reporting that about 75% of paying parents are experiencing debt
problems there need to be some serious questions asked.
One would think that this out of control debt spiral is a pretty good indicator of some serious problems with the Act
and Inland Revenues administration of it. It's pretty obvious that once a parent is assessed by Inland Revenue with an
alleged child support debt they are caught is a debt trap that never stops growing. This is one of the fundamental flaws
of the legislation, it creates the debt" Commented Mark when asked to comment on the cause of the alleged 1.1 Billion
Dollar debt.
"It's a Tui Ad solution. Peter Dunne's latest tinkering will fix the problem? Yeah Right" Concluded Mark.
ENDS