Standen and Amstead (Child support)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application by Standen (the applicant) to review a decision made by the Registrar of the Child Support Agency concerning the assessment of child support payable by Amstead (the respondent). The dispute centred on the percentages of care attributed to each parent, which directly impacts the child support assessment. The applicant sought to have the Registrar's decision set aside and substituted with a new assessment reflecting a different pattern of care.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine the likely future pattern of care for the child. This involved assessing whether the care arrangements were likely to remain consistent or change, and how any such changes would affect the percentage of care each parent provided. A secondary issue, arising from the applicant's late lodgement of the application for review, was whether special circumstances existed to permit the late filing, given the statutory time limits for such applications.

The Tribunal found that the applicant had not established special circumstances that would justify the late lodgement of the application for review. Consequently, the Tribunal determined that the date of effect for the review of the Registrar's decision was the date the application for review was lodged with the Tribunal, rather than an earlier date. This meant that the assessment based on the Registrar's decision would remain in effect until that lodgement date.