About the group

Who we are

A non-partisan think tank working to reform Australia's child support scheme through evidence and respectful engagement with Parliament.

The Child Support Crisis Group is an independent advocacy organisation. We came together because a system that affects so many Australian families has been allowed to fall out of step with the lives it is meant to serve. Our purpose is to study how the child support scheme is failing, to develop sensible options for putting it right, and to make the case for those reforms to the people who can enact them: the members of Australia's federal Parliament.

We are a think tank in the truest sense. We do not run a helpline, sell a service, or act for one party in a dispute. Our product is ideas — carefully argued, evidence-based proposals for reform — and our method is persuasion. We believe the child support scheme can be made fairer for everyone it touches, and we aim to prove it.

Our stance

Strictly non-partisan

Child support has too often been treated as a battleground — mothers against fathers, one political side against the other. We reject that framing entirely. A scheme that pits parents against each other cannot serve their children, and a reform that depends on which party holds office will never last. Our independence is the foundation of everything we do.

We take no side in the contest between paying and receiving parents, because both deserve a scheme that is accurate and fair. We align with no political party, because good child support policy should outlast any single government. When we engage with a member of Parliament, it is on the strength of our evidence, not the colour of their rosette. That discipline is what allows us to be heard across the chamber, and it is a discipline we intend to keep.

Guiding principles

The principles that guide our work

Evidence before opinion

We start from what the data and the lived experience of families actually show, not from a predetermined position. If the evidence challenges our assumptions, we follow the evidence.

The child comes first

Every reform proposal is tested against a single question: does it leave children better off? Where a measure helps adults but not children, we set it aside.

Respect for the process

Lasting change comes through Parliament, not around it. We aim to work within the democratic process, engaging constructively rather than confrontationally.

Fairness to both parents

We hold that a scheme can only be fair to children if it is fair to both of their parents. Balance is not a compromise of our mission — it is the mission.

How we work

Research first, then respectful engagement

Our work follows a deliberate sequence. First comes the research: assembling the evidence on where the scheme breaks down, from the rigidity of the assessment formula to the way it handles changing incomes and the toll that drawn-out disputes take on families. We draw on published data, the experience of people who have dealt with the system at close quarters, and the practical knowledge of specialists who understand how child support works in reality.

Among those who inform our thinking is child support specialist Simon Bacon, whose three and a half decades of experience in the field help us keep our proposals grounded in what actually happens to families — you can read more on his dedicated page. Pairing that frontline understanding with rigorous analysis is what gives our reform proposals their credibility.

Once the evidence is in, we turn it into clear, practical options — the kind a parliamentarian of any party could pick up and act on. Then comes engagement: presenting those options to members of the federal Parliament, explaining the human cost of the status quo, and making the case patiently and respectfully. We do not seek confrontation or headlines for their own sake. We seek change, and change in a democracy is won by persuasion.

This is unglamorous, long-term work, and we make no promises we cannot keep. We have not changed any law, and we do not pretend otherwise. What we can promise is persistence: we will keep researching, keep refining our proposals, and keep making the case for a fairer scheme for as long as it takes to be heard.

See the case for reform Write to us