Child Support Spies to Watch Parents

Private investigators will be used by the Child Support Agency (CSA) to spy on parents who are not meeting their child support payments.

The Federal Government says the new measures would help the CSA collect outstanding debts of $1 billion from the current financial year.

Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig said a small proportion of parents was not doing the right thing.

Our View on Protecting Children: Texas Custody Case Collapses, Leaving Damage in its Wake

Imagine that state agents raided your home and seized your children along with more than 400 of your neighbors' kids. The reason, you were told, was suspicion of child abuse, but the authorities produced scant evidence involving your child. Imagine further that after a series of hearings, the children were shipped off to foster families while courts sorted matters out.

That is essentially what has transpired in Texas over the past two months, though outrage was minimal and suspicion high because the parents were members of a reclusive polygamist sect.