Ethington and Hardwick (Child support)

This matter concerned an appeal by the applicant, Ethington, against an administrative assessment of child support made by the Registrar of the Child Support Agency. The dispute centred on the Registrar's estimation of the respondent's, Hardwick's, income for the purposes of calculating child support liability.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the Registrar had erred in accepting and utilising an estimate of Hardwick's income when making the administrative assessment. Specifically, the court was required to determine if the estimate of income was sufficiently substantiated to be considered a valid basis for the assessment, or if it was so lacking in evidence that it should have been disregarded.

The court found that the Registrar's decision to proceed with an estimated income figure was not supported by adequate evidence. The Registrar had failed to obtain sufficient information to form a reasonable estimate of Hardwick's income, rendering the estimate effectively non-existent in a legally meaningful sense. Consequently, the court determined that the administrative assessment based on this flawed estimate was invalid. The court set aside the decision under review and substituted its own decision, which involved recalculating the child support liability without reliance on the unsubstantiated estimate.