McKean & Page & T & Strathie & Deputy Child Support Registrar

The Full Court of the Family Court of Australia considered an appeal by McKean & Page (the applicants) against a decision of a Registrar of the Child Support Agency. The applicants sought to have a child support assessment made under the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 (Cth) set aside. The dispute concerned the validity of a notice of objection to a child support assessment, which the Registrar had found to be invalid.

The central legal issue before the Full Court was whether the notice of objection, which was lodged by a solicitor on behalf of the applicants, satisfied the requirements of section 29(1) of the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 (Cth). Specifically, the Court had to determine if the notice was properly "given" to the Registrar within the prescribed time limit, and whether it was sufficient to constitute a valid objection.

The Court reasoned that the word "given" in section 29(1) implied that the notice must come to the attention of the Registrar or an authorised officer. It held that merely posting the notice to the Registrar's office was not sufficient to satisfy this requirement, particularly when the notice was not received by the Registrar's office until after the statutory time limit for lodging an objection had expired. The Court applied the principle that statutory time limits are generally strictly enforced and that a failure to comply with the prescribed method of giving notice can render the notice invalid.

Consequently, the Full Court dismissed the appeal, upholding the Registrar's decision that the notice of objection was invalid and that the child support assessment stood.