Several provisions in the regulations can catch practitioners and parties off guard. The most significant is section 35: a person who changes address and fails to notify the Registrar cannot plead the change of address as a defence in any proceedings under the Act or the regulations. This applies to both civil and criminal proceedings. If a payer moves house and does not update their address with Services Australia, they cannot later argue that they did not receive a notice of assessment, a deduction notice, a departure prohibition order, or a court summons. The defence is completely barred, regardless of whether the non-receipt caused prejudice.
Section 28 provides that a certificate signed by the Registrar certifying a debt is prima facie evidence of the facts stated. That means the certificate itself can be enough to prove the debt in court unless the debtor produces evidence to the contrary. A debtor cannot simply deny the debt; they must lead evidence to rebut the certificate. Many debtors and their lawyers underestimate the strength of this evidentiary provision.
Section 30 is another evidentiary trap. Documents bearing the written, printed or stamped name (including a facsimile signature) of the Registrar or a delegate are taken to have been duly signed unless proved to have been issued without authority. Judicial notice must be taken of the Registrar’s and delegates’ names and signatures. This streamlines proof of documents but can be problematic if a document is challenged on authenticity grounds - the burden lies on the challenger to prove it was issued without authority.
The prescribed amounts for payments in section 23 are low: $5 for domestic payments and certain overseas payments through central authorities, $50 otherwise. Many payees expect to receive every cent collected, but if the amount is below these thresholds, the Registrar is not required to pay it out. The exception is if no further amounts are expected - then the threshold does not apply. A payee could miss out on small periodic payments if future payments are anticipated. The $50 threshold for “any other case” (such as payment to an overseas account not through a central authority) is significantly higher.
Section 13 excludes certain liabilities from being registrable unless the payee provides a duly completed approved form requesting enforcement. Liabilities under section 66Q or 77 of the Family Law Act or section 139 of the Assessment Act are not automatically registrable. A payee who has such a court order must take proactive steps to have it enforced through the child support system. If they fail to lodge the approved form, the Registrar will not collect the money.
The conversion rules in sections 37 and 38 use the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s international money transfer buying rate. This rate may differ from market rates or rates used by other institutions. For overseas maintenance liabilities from reciprocating jurisdictions (other than New Zealand), the conversion rate is fixed on the day the Registrar receives the application. This can create a windfall or loss depending on currency fluctuations between that day and the day payment is actually made. For New Zealand, the conversion is done when the decision is transmitted by the Registrar.
The list of excepted reciprocating jurisdictions in section 16 requires careful checking: Brunei Darussalam, Cook Islands, Israel, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and the Yukon Territory of Canada are excepted for child support assessments. This means that if a payer moves to one of those places, Australian child support cannot be enforced through the reciprocal enforcement regime. The payee may need to initiate enforcement proceedings in that jurisdiction separately, which is often impractical.
The prescribed provisions in Schedule 3 that the ART cannot exercise include some that might be expected to be reviewable. For example, the ART cannot exercise the power to make a determination under subsection 72AA(2)(e) in the case described by subsection 72AA(2A) - reducing a social security pension to nil to satisfy a child support debt. Similarly, it cannot exercise powers under Part VA (departure prohibition orders) or sections 111D and 111E (which relate to information gathering). A person aggrieved by such a decision has no right of merits review; only judicial review on legal grounds is available.
The service provisions in section 31 allow for electronic communication only if the person has consented. The definition of consent adopts the meaning in section 5 of the Electronic Transactions Act 1999. A person who has not consented cannot be served by email or other electronic means. The Registrar must use physical service methods for those who have not consented. However, if service is attempted by prepaid post, it is deemed to have been effected at the time it would have arrived in the ordinary course of post, unless the contrary is proved. This can be difficult to rebut.
Section 23(2) creates a nuance: the prescribed threshold amounts do not apply “if no further amounts are expected to be payable to the person in relation to that or any other registered maintenance liability.” This means small final payments can be paid out, but if there is any possibility of future payments, the threshold applies and the small amount is not paid. A payee might never receive small residual amounts if there is a chance of future collections.
The minimum social security rate and minimum veterans rate are calculated using the minimum annual rate of child support from the Assessment Act, but that rate itself may change. The regulations do not fix a dollar figure; they provide a formula. The rate is effectively the floor below which child support cannot be assessed under the Assessment Act. If that floor changes, so do the minimum rates and thus the caps on deductions.