Child support.
Child support through the Court.
Both parents are primarily responsible for maintaining their child or children. Child support is usually dealt with through Services Australia rather than through the Court and is governed primarily by the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989.
The Court may however consider child support proceedings in limited circumstances. These circumstances include:
Child Support Appeals: where a parent has gone through all steps of the administrative process through Services Australia and needs to appeal an administrative decision;
Where an administrative child support assessment has been issued, and the eligible carer (the parent receiving child support) asks for a non-periodic payment of child support; and
Where an administrative child support assessment has been issued, and a party to that assessment seeks to depart from it (wants it changed) due to special circumstances and either:
the Court is already dealing with a matter involving the parties, and the Court is satisfied that it would be in the interests of the parties, in the special circumstances of the case, to consider the child support departure application, or
the assessment provides for the minimum level of child support to be paid.
Child support agreements.
There are different types of child support agreements that parents can enter into. These can be long term of short term agreements. The two specific types of child support agreements are:
Limited Child Support Agreements; and
Binding Child Support Agreements.
These agreements can provide for an amount of child support to be paid periodically and set out how expenses are to be paid (such as school and extracurricular fees). Child support agreements can be registered with the Child Support Agency, making the agreement enforceable.