Judith Collins MP
National Party Welfare Spokeswoman

25 November 2005

Debt write-off an exercise in deception

National Party Welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins says the Government plan to write-off half a billion dollars in unpaid child support is “an exercise in deception”.

National is opposing Labour’s plan to write off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of accumulated child support debt as proposed in the Child Support Amendment Bill, which was introduced to Parliament this week.

“Penalties don’t start accumulating straight away and these liable parents obviously knew they had responsibilities to their children from the start, but they failed to honour those obligations.

“The new Revenue Minister must be dreaming if he thinks more than a small fraction of liable parents will miraculously come to their senses and start paying their way.

“This is merely an attempt to disguise Labour’s soft approach to ballooning child support debt and make the grim figures look better.

“Labour’s plan will see hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars transferred straight into the pockets of child support defaulters.

“Surely the Government would be better off making more of an effort to collect the outstanding debt and channel the money in the direction of vulnerable children.

“Labour is doing single parents and their children a grave disservice by failing to enforce the law,” says Ms Collins.

ENDS

© Scoop Media