Child Support Registrar and Atkins and Ors

The Child Support Registrar (the Applicant) sought to enforce a child support debt against the First Respondent. The First Respondent applied to the Federal Circuit Court seeking to exercise its discretion not to enforce the arrears, and also sought to uphold a charge over his real property, which was secured by caveats lodged by the Second and Third Respondents. The Applicant sought a declaration that these caveats were a sham and should be set aside pursuant to section 72C(1) of the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* (Cth).

The central legal issues before the Court were whether the First Respondent's application to avoid enforcement of the child support debt should be granted, and whether the charges and caveats registered by the Second and Third Respondents over the First Respondent's property were valid, or if they were instruments or dispositions made to defeat the First Respondent's ability to pay child support, thereby warranting their removal under section 72C(1) of the Act.

Judge Bender found that the First Respondent's application to avoid enforcement of the child support debt failed. The Court determined that the purported charges and caveats created in favour of the Second and Third Respondents were indeed made to reduce or defeat the First Respondent's ability to pay child support, and therefore ordered that they be set aside pursuant to section 72C(1) of the *Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988* (Cth). The First Respondent was ordered to pay the outstanding child support debt and the Applicant's costs.