Important: Only signatures submitted through the House of Representatives petition (EN9527) will be counted. Change.org has been used for national visibility only, and signing here will not count.

If you want your support to count, please use the official link here: THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PETITION - EN9527. Thank you :)

Australian families are facing significant challenges with child support administration and it needs urgent attention. Current gaps in Services Australia's processes are creating opportunities for financial manipulation and leaving vulnerable children and parents without adequate protection.

It is open for four weeks and closes on the 1st April 2026. I need 50 signatures for it to be presented to the House of Representatives and the Minister for action.​ 

We would like the number of signatures on the Parliment site to reflect the real size of the problem, so they understand the systemic harm being carried out by one of its core services.

If 792,985 Australians can unite in 2000 for the "Beer Price” petition surely we can show that supporting vulnerable families is a priority in 2026.

What I uncovered in only six months - Services Australia Case Officers are knowingly (because they said it outloud):

1. keeping one parent on “provisional income” for years and refusing to verify with the ATO – saying “we can’t make people pay their tax” while hyper‑vigilantly scrutinising and penalising the other  
2. Wiping child support “on paper” through non‑compliant, unevidenced NAP credits when little or nothing is actually paid.​
3. Failing to protect cases flagged for family and domestic violence, then threatening criminal offences if victim‑survivors do not disclose everything – even when they are told nothing will be redacted from the abusive Payer.​

So Australia – let’s set a record; by signing the official House of Representatives e‑petition https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN9527, you’re asking five things:

1. That the current Senator and Minister for Government Services holds Services Australia and DSS Executives accountable to action all of the Remediations set out in the Ombudsman Reports (see below links)
2. Strengthen verification processes for payment credits and income estimates; with independent risk and performance monitoring
3. Mandate inter-agency collaboration with ATO and Family Court to improve outcomes for families in FDV / trauma-informed behaviours, 
4. Implement staff training in trauma-informed approaches and domestic violence / financial abuse indicators, not just 'awareness' briefs
5. Establish specialised support for families experiencing domestic violence with lived experience and trauma informed input

Please take half a minute to click on the petition link EN9527, add your signature, verify; then share this petition for others to access the link. 

Your signature is one more hand raised  and one more voice saying: "I see this, people are being harmed and I expect it to stop... "

The hard work has been done, we just need the right people to take it seriously and hold Services Australia Executives to account. 

THE COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMAN'S FINDINGS 

In June 2025, the Commonwealth Ombudsman published his report 'Weaponising ​Child Support: when the system fails families" An investigation into how Services Australia is responding to financial abuse through the Child Support program. 

The report confirmed, what victims of the system have probably felt for decades - that Services Australia has not been applying child support law properly and is not doing enough to identify and respond to financial abuse and family violence in the Child Support program. The Ombudsman set down 8 Recommendations for Services Australia to action; and Mr Hazlehurst, the CEO of Services Australia responded, with their response and commitment to closing the actions. 

Then in January 2026, the Commonwealth Ombudsman published a second, follow up report "Following the Law is not Optional" An investigation into the actions of Services Australia and the Department of Social Services to address an ongoing issue of non-compliance with the law.

The reason for the second report was that again, the Ombudsman found that Services Australia “deprioritised any work to implement the law” because the issue was “sensitive and difficult”, even though the unfair outcomes it had already identified “have now well and truly passed” and more families were being affected every year (quoted from an internal SA email).

In other words, they knew receiving parents were being underpaid and still chose not to act, leaving emotionally exhausted single parents to carry the financial and emotional load alone.

Amending legislation requires ministerial, Cabinet and parliamentary approval: departments and agencies cannot themselves amend the law. However Mr Hazlehurst and Mr Fetherington, "had failed to escalate the issue in an appropriate manner", and the remediation plan to obtain legislative amendment had not proceeded as promised.

It is abundantly clear when you engage with Services Australia that the publicly promised remediation strategy has either not been done, is not working, or was not taken seriously; a new or amended strategy is needed urgently.