{"id":"F2018L00308","name":"Child Support Reform (New Formula and Other Measures) Regulations 2018","slug":"child-support-reform-new-formula-and-other-measures-regulations-2018","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":439540,"registerId":"F2018L00308-fast-fetch-1775955527758","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Child Support Reform (New Formula and Other Measures) Regulations 2018","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![Commonwealth Coat of Arms of Australia](image.001.jpeg)\n\n \n\nChild Support Reform (New Formula and Other Measures) Regulations 2018\n\nI, General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Ret’d), Governor‑General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following regulations.\n\nDated 15 March 2018\n\nPeter Cosgrove\n\nGovernor‑General\n\nBy His Excellency’s Command\n\nDan Tehan\n\nMinister for Social Services\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n1 Name\n\n2 Commencement\n\n3 Authority\n\n4 Schedules\n\n5 Definitions\n\nPart 2—Scale of expenses\n\n6 Scale of expenses\n\nPart 3—Corresponding rights and obligations under determinations made before 1 July 2008\n\n7 Scope of this Part\n\n8 Corresponding rights and obligations for departure determinations\n\n9 Determinations with no corresponding rights and obligations\n\nPart 4—Transitional matters for child support agreements made before 1 July 2008\n\n10 Scope of this Part\n\n11 Corresponding rights and obligations for transitional agreements\n\nPart 5—Transitional matters for court orders made before 1 July 2008\n\n12 Scope of this Part\n\n13 Corresponding rights and obligations for court orders\n\n14 Court orders with no corresponding rights and obligations\n\nSchedule 1—Repeals\n\nChild Support Reform (New Formula and Other Measures) Regulations 2007\n\n \n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n \n\n1  Name\n\n  This instrument is the Child Support Reform (New Formula and Other Measures) Regulations 2018.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n (1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\n \n\n- Commencement information\n- Column 1 Column 2 Column 3\n- Provisions Commencement Date/Details\n- 1. The whole of this instrument The day after this instrument is registered. 20 March 2018\n\n\nNote: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.\n\n (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.\n\n3  Authority\n\n  This instrument is made under the Child Support Legislation Amendment (Reform of the Child Support Scheme—New Formula and Other Measures) Act 2006.\n\n4  Schedules\n\n  Each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to this instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this instrument has effect according to its terms.\n\n5  Definitions\n\n  In this instrument:\n\nAct means the Child Support Legislation Amendment (Reform of the Child Support Scheme—New Formula and Other Measures) Act 2006.\n\namended Assessment Act means the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 as amended by the Act and the Consolidation Act on, or immediately after, 1 July 2008.\n\namended Registration and Collection Act means the Registration and Collection Act as amended by the Act and the Consolidation Act on, or immediately after, 1 July 2008.\n\napplicable formula, for a child, means the formula that would be applicable to working out the annual rate of child support payable for the child under Part 5 of the unamended Assessment Act, as amended by the Act and the Consolidation Act, as if the amendments provided by those Acts to come into operation on 1 July 2008, or immediately after that day, had come into operation on, or immediately after, the commencement of the old regulations.\n\ncarer means a carer entitled to child support.\n\ncarer entitled to child support has the same meaning as in the amended Assessment Act.\n\nchild support has the same meaning as in the amended Assessment Act.\n\nchild support agreement has the same meaning as in the unamended Assessment Act.\n\nConsolidation Act means the Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Legislation Amendment (Child Support Reform Consolidation and Other Measures) Act 2007.\n\nliable parent has the same meaning as in the amended Assessment Act.\n\nold regulations means the Child Support Reform (New Formula and Other Measures) Regulations 2007.\n\npayee has the same meaning as in the amended Registration and Collection Act.\n\npayer has the same meaning as in the amended Registration and Collection Act.\n\nRegistrar has the same meaning as in the amended Assessment Act.\n\nRegistration and Collection Act means the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988.\n\ntransitional administrative assessment means an administrative assessment made, or amended, by the Registrar under subregulation 7(1) of the old regulations that was in force during the transition period.\n\nNote: Subregulation 7(1) of the old regulations was repealed by the Tribunal Legislation Amendment (Amalgamation) Regulation 2015.\n\ntransitional agreement: see section 10.\n\ntransitional departure determination means a departure determination made by the Registrar under subregulation 9(1) of the old regulations that was in force during the transition period.\n\nNote: Subregulation 9(1) of the old regulations was repealed by the Tribunal Legislation Amendment (Amalgamation) Regulation 2015.\n\ntransition period means the period beginning on the commencement of the old regulations and ending at the end of 30 June 2008.\n\nNote: The old regulations commenced on 1 January 2008.\n\nunamended Assessment Act means the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 as in force during the transition period.\n\nPart 2—Scale of expenses\n\n \n\n6  Scale of expenses\n\n  For the purposes of subsection 4(2) of the Act, the prescribed scale of expenses to be allowed to a person (other than a person who is a payer, payee or a personal representative of a payer or payee) required to attend under subsection 4(1) of the Act are as follows:\n\n (a) the amount provided for in the High Court Rules (as in force at the commencement of this section) for expenses of witnesses;\n\n (b) if the person is required to be absent overnight from his or her usual place of residence—such amount as is reasonable for meals and accommodation.\n\nPart 3—Corresponding rights and obligations under determinations made before 1 July 2008\n\n \n\n7  Scope of this Part\n\n  This Part applies if the Registrar, using the applicable formula, makes or amends a transitional administrative assessment of child support that is subject to a transitional departure determination.\n\n8  Corresponding rights and obligations for departure determinations\n\n  A liable parent, or a carer, to whom a transitional departure determination mentioned in column 1 of an item in the following table applies has the same rights and obligations as if the transitional departure determination were a departure determination made under a provision of the amended Assessment Act mentioned in column 2 of the item.\n\n \n\n- Transitional departure determinations\n- Item Column 1If the transitional departure determination was made under the following provisions of the unamended Assessment Act … Column 2after the transition period the determination is taken to be a determination made under the following provisions of the amended Assessment Act …\n- 1 paragraph 98S(1)(a) (varying the rate of child support payable by the liable parent) paragraph 98S(1)(a) (varying the annual rate of child support payable).\n- 2 paragraph 98S(1)(b) (varying the adjusted income amount of the liable parent) paragraph 98S(1)(c) (varying a parent’s child support income).\n- 3 paragraph 98S(1)(b) or (d) (varying the child support income amount of the liable parent or the carer entitled to child support) paragraph 98S(1)(g) (varying a parent’s adjusted taxable income).\n- 4 paragraph 98S(1)(b) (varying the exempted income amount of the liable parent) paragraph 98S(1)(i) (varying a parent’s self‑support amount).\n\n\n9  Determinations with no corresponding rights and obligations\n\n (1) This section applies to a transitional departure determination under any of the following provisions of the unamended Assessment Act:\n\n (a) paragraph 98S(1)(b) (varying the child support percentage);\n\n (b) paragraph 98S(1)(d) (varying the disregarded income amount of the carer);\n\n (c) paragraph 98S(1)(g) (varying a factor ascertained under paragraph 54(1)(b) of the unamended Assessment Act).\n\n (2) The rights and obligations under the transitional departure determination has effect after 30 June 2008 as if the determination were a departure determination under paragraph 98S(1)(a) of the amended Assessment Act varying the annual rate of child support to the rate payable on 30 June 2008.\n\n (3) An amount specified in a transitional departure determination to which this section applies is to be indexed annually on 1 July, starting on 1 July 2009, using the following steps:\n\nStep 1: Divide the highest March quarter index number by the base March quarter index number.\n\nStep 2: Multiply the amount specified in the existing determination by the number worked out in step 1.\n\n (4) In this section:\n\nbase March quarter index number means the index number for the March quarter of 2008.\n\nhighest March quarter index number means the highest index number for a March quarter since the base March quarter index number (and including the base March quarter index number).\n\nindex number means, for a quarter, the All Groups Consumer Price Index number that is the weighted average of the 8 capital cities and is published by the Australian Statistician for that quarter.\n\n (5) Subject to subsection (6), if at any time before or after the commencement of this section:\n\n (a) the Australian Statistician has published or publishes an index number in respect of a quarter; and\n\n (b) that index number is in substitution for an index number previously published by the Australian Statistician in respect of that quarter;\n\ndisregard the publication of the later index number for the purposes of this section.\n\n (6) If, at any time before or after the commencement of this section, the Australian Statistician has changed or changes the index reference period for the Consumer Price Index, then, for the purposes of applying this section after the change took place or takes place, have regard only to index numbers published in terms of the new index reference period.\n\nPart 4—Transitional matters for child support agreements made before 1 July 2008\n\n \n\n10  Scope of this Part\n\n  This Part applies to a child support agreement that has been reviewed and determined to be binding by the Registrar under subitems 74(1) and (2) of Schedule 5 to the Act during the transition period. The child support agreement is a transitional agreement.\n\n11  Corresponding rights and obligations for transitional agreements\n\n  A liable parent, or carer, who is party to a transitional agreement mentioned in column 1 of an item in the following table has the same rights and obligations as if the child support agreement were made under the amended Assessment Act as described in column 2 of the item.\n\n \n\n- Transitional agreements\n- Item Column 1If the transitional agreement … Column 2the transitional agreement is taken to be a child support agreement made under the amended Assessment Act that …\n- 1 varies the rate of child support payable varies the annual rate of child support payable.\n- 2 varies the adjusted income amount varies a parent’s child support income.\n- 3 varies the child support income amount varies a parent’s adjusted taxable income.\n- 4 varies the exempted income amount varies a parent’s self‑support amount.\n\n\nPart 5—Transitional matters for court orders made before 1 July 2008\n\n \n\n12  Scope of this Part\n\n (1) This Part is made for the purposes of item 1 of Schedule 9 to the Act.\n\n (2) This Part applies to a transitional administrative assessment if:\n\n (a) an order has been made by a court in relation to the assessment under section 118 of the unamended Assessment Act during the transition period; and\n\n (b) the Registrar, using the applicable formula, makes or amends the assessment to give effect to the order.\n\nNote: A liable parent or carer may apply to a court under section 116 of the unamended Assessment Act in relation to the Registrar’s notice of an administrative assessment of child support under the applicable formula: see item 1(6) of Schedule 9 to the Act.\n\n13  Corresponding rights and obligations for court orders\n\n  If an administrative assessment is to be made or amended as a result of an order by a court under a provision of the unamended Assessment Act mentioned in an item in column 1 of the following table, the Registrar must ensure, as far as practicable, that the made or amended assessment confers on the liable parent or carer the same rights and obligations that would be conferred if the order had been made under a provision of the amended Assessment Act mentioned in column 2 of the item.\n\n \n\n- Court orders\n- Item Column 1Provision of the unamended Assessment Act Column 2Provision of the amended Assessment Act\n- 1 paragraph 118(1)(a) (varying the rate of child support payable) paragraph 118(1)(a) (varying the annual rate of child support payable)\n- 2 paragraph 118(1)(b) (varying the adjusted income amount) paragraph 118(1)(c) (varying a parent’s child support income)\n- 3 paragraph 118(1)(b) or (d) (varying the child support income amount) paragraph 118(1)(g) (varying a parent’s adjusted taxable income)\n- 4 paragraph 118(1)(b) (varying the exempted income amount) paragraph 118(1)(i)(varying a parent’s self‑support amount)\n\n\n14  Court orders with no corresponding rights and obligations\n\n (1) This section applies to a transitional administrative assessment that is to be made or amended as a result of an order by a court made under the unamended Assessment Act that:\n\n (a) varies the child support percentage (paragraph 118(1)(b) of that Act); or\n\n (b) varies the disregarded income amount of the carer (paragraph 118(1)(d) of that Act); or\n\n (c) varies a factor ascertained under paragraph 54(1)(b) of that Act (paragraph 118(1)(g) of that Act).\n\n (2) The Registrar must ensure, as far as practicable, that the assessment confers on the liable parent or carer bound by the order the same rights and obligations that would have been conferred if there were an order under paragraph 118(1)(a) of the amended Assessment Act varying the annual rate of child support to the rate payable on 30 June 2008.\n\n (3) Subsections 9(3) to (6) of this instrument apply to the assessment as if the review of the assessment by the Registrar were a transitional departure determination to which those subsections apply.\n\nSchedule 1—Repeals\n\n \n\nChild Support Reform (New Formula and Other Measures) Regulations 2007\n\n1  The whole of the instrument\n\nRepeal the instrument.\n\n \n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation maintains its original purpose of providing transitional arrangements for the 2008 child support formula reforms. It does not expand beyond managing the transition of pre-July 2008 determinations, agreements, and court orders into the reformed system."},"complexity_factors":["Heavy reliance on defined terms referencing multiple Acts (Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989, Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988, and two amending Acts)","Complex transitional logic requiring readers to understand the 'transition period' (1 January 2008 to 30 June 2008) and distinguish between 'unamended' and 'amended' versions of legislation","Multiple mapping tables (Items 1-4 in sections 8, 11, and 13) translating old legislative provisions to new equivalents","Nested conditional provisions for determinations with 'no corresponding rights' (sections 9 and 14) requiring CPI indexation calculations with specific mathematical steps","Cross-references to repealed subregulations (subregulations 7(1) and 9(1) of the 2007 regulations) requiring historical knowledge","Interaction between regulations and Schedule items of amending Acts (e.g., item 1 of Schedule 9 to the Act)"],"plain_english_summary":"This regulation preserves and translates child support decisions made during the Jan–Jun 2008 transition to Australia’s new child support formula, so departure determinations, binding agreements and court orders from that period continue to operate under equivalent concepts in the reformed law. For legacy items without direct matches it freezes rates at June 2008 levels and indexes them. It also clarifies permitted witness expenses and repeals the 2007 transitional rules, removing legal uncertainty for affected parents."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This instrument is primarily transitional and technical: it replaces the 2007 regulations and preserves the legal effects of determinations, agreements and court orders from the 2008 transition period by mapping them into the amended Child Support (Assessment) Act. It does not broaden the substantive scope of child support law beyond the original reform objectives; instead it maintains continuity, prescribes a narrow scale of witness expenses, and sets an indexing method for legacy amounts. It is therefore not a significant expansion beyond the original transitional purpose."},"complexity_factors":["Approximately 19 defined terms in the interpretation section (section 5).","Multiple cross‑references between the unamended Assessment Act, the amended Assessment Act, the old regulations (2007) and the Consolidation Act.","Three distinct transitional mapping regimes: (a) transitional departure determinations (Part 3), (b) transitional agreements (Part 4), (c) transitional court orders (Part 5).","Mapping tables with itemised correspondences (sections 8, 11, 13) that require reading across columns to determine effect.","Special indexing procedure with multi‑step arithmetic and preservation of the highest March quarter CPI (section 9(3)–(4)), plus substitution rules if ABS republishes or re‑references CPI (section 9(5)–(6)).","Discretionary phrasing requiring the Registrar to act “as far as practicable” (sections 13 and elsewhere), creating interpretive ambiguity.","Dependence on external instruments: High Court Rules for witness allowances and the ABS All Groups CPI series (section 6 and section 9).","Short length but dense conditional logic tied to the historical transition period (applies only to instruments in force or made during 1 Jan–30 Jun 2008).","Repeal of the 2007 regulations (Schedule 1) — a structural change but not operationally complex in itself."],"plain_english_summary":"**What this instrument does (mechanically)**\n\n- Replaces the 2007 regulations and sets out short, technical rules to manage the legal transition from the old child support regime that applied during 1 January–30 June 2008 (the “transition period”) to the amended child support laws that took effect after 1 July 2008 (Schedule 1; Parts 3–5).  (See Schedule 1 and Parts 3–5.)\n\n- Gives definitions used throughout the instrument so the transitional mapping is precise (section 5).\n\n- Prescribes the scale of expenses payable to a person (other than a payer/payee or their personal representative) who is required to attend under subsection 4(1) of the Act: the amount in the High Court Rules for witnesses and, where an overnight absence is required, a reasonable amount for meals and accommodation (section 6).\n\n- For administrative assessments, departure determinations, child‑support agreements and court orders that existed or were made during the transition period, the regulations map those old instruments to corresponding provisions under the amended Child Support (Assessment) Act so that the rights and obligations survive and continue to have effect under the new statutory framework (Parts 3–5, especially sections 8, 11 and 13).\n\n- Where an old departure determination or court order dealt with a feature that has no direct counterpart in the amended law (for example, varying the child‑support percentage or certain disregarded income amounts), the regulation treats the instrument as if it varied the annual rate of child support to the rate payable on 30 June 2008, and it provides an annual CPI‑based indexing method for amounts so adjusted (section 9 and section 14(2)–(3)).\n\n**Who is affected**\n\n- Liable parents (those required to pay child support) and carers (those entitled to receive child support): their pre‑1 July 2008 determinations, agreements or orders are mapped to the new law so that entitlements and obligations continue under the amended regime (Parts 3–5).\n\n- The Registrar of Child Support: is required to make or amend assessments using the applicable formula and to ensure assessments confer equivalent rights and obligations ‘as far as practicable’ (sections 7, 12 and 13).\n\n- Payees/payers and other third parties who might be required to attend hearings (they may claim witness expenses as prescribed in section 6).\n\n**Why it matters (purpose claimed by the instrument and how it works)**\n\n- The instrument’s stated purpose is administrative continuity: to preserve the legal effects of departure determinations, agreements and court orders made or in force during the transition period by translating them into the terminology and structure of the amended child support law so families are not unintentionally advantaged or disadvantaged by the legislative change (Parts 3–5).\n\n- Mechanically, it does that by identifying which old provision corresponds to which new provision and treating the old instrument as if it had been made under the corresponding new provision (see the mapping tables in sections 8, 11 and 13). Where no one‑to‑one correspondence exists, it fixes the outcome to the annual rate as at 30 June 2008 and prescribes how that fixed dollar amount will be indexed each year using the All Groups CPI (section 9).\n\n**Practical implications, costs and trade‑offs**\n\n- Who pays / who decides: the liable parent remains the person responsible for paying child support. The Registrar has administrative responsibility to translate old instruments into the amended law and to apply the prescribed indexing method where necessary (sections 7, 9, 12–13). Courts remain able to make orders, but the Registrar must implement those orders in the amended framework.\n\n- Compliance and administrative burden: the Registrar and department staff must identify transitional instruments, determine the applicable formula, map old provisions to new ones and apply the indexing rules where required. That imposes an administrative task and some discretionary judgment (the instrument repeatedly uses “as far as practicable”) which can generate disputes about whether the Registrar’s implementation correctly preserves rights.\n\n- Effect on private choice and contract freedom: transitional child‑support agreements that were validated during the transition period are taken to be agreements under the amended Act (section 11). That reduces the need for parties to renegotiate those agreements purely because of the legislative change; it preserves contractual outcomes but shifts their legal footing to the amended statute.\n\n- Indexation mechanism and its distributional effect: where there is no direct counterpart in the new law, amounts are fixed to the annual rate on 30 June 2008 and then indexed annually using a March‑quarter All Groups CPI ratio that uses the highest March quarter index number since March 2008 (section 9(3)–(4)). The chosen indexing method prevents amounts from declining below the historical high (because it uses the highest March quarter index number since the base), so indexed obligations will not fall if CPI later declines—this is a mechanical design choice that affects the real value of obligations over time.\n\n- Implementation risk & legal friction: the regulation cross‑references the unamended and amended Assessment Acts and the now‑repealed subregulations of the old regulations (notes mention subregulation repeals). That reliance on historical instruments and external publications (High Court Rules; ABS CPI series) creates room for interpretation disputes and may prompt applications to courts for clarification (the instrument itself recognises court pathways in related legislation).\n\n**Net description of effects**\n\n- The instrument is largely technical and transitional. It preserves existing outcomes from the transition period by translating older forms of departure determinations, agreements and orders into the amended legislative scheme, prescribes witness expense allowances, and sets an indexing rule for amounts that have no direct counterpart in the new law."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"Unauthenticated. Configure AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY or use a provider module. Learn more: https://ai-sdk.dev/unauthenticated-ai-gateway","source":"analysis-cron"}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/child-support-reform-new-formula-and-other-measures-regulations-2018","history":"/api/acts/child-support-reform-new-formula-and-other-measures-regulations-2018/history","analysis":"/api/acts/child-support-reform-new-formula-and-other-measures-regulations-2018/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/child-support-reform-new-formula-and-other-measures-regulations-2018/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/child-support-reform-new-formula-and-other-measures-regulations-2018/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/child-support-reform-new-formula-and-other-measures-regulations-2018/documents"}}