An investigation into the actions of Services Australia and the Department of Social Services (DSS) to address an ongoing issue of non-compliance with the law. While agencies are always required to follow the law, there is a clear distinction between a situation where an agency is not aware that it is not following the law, and a situation where an agency knows that it is not doing so. 

In June 2025, Services Australia proactively reported that it had identified its practice, that parents with less than 35% care of a child do not receive child support, conflicted with the law. This issue was originally identified by Services Australia staff in 2019. The investigation into Services Australia and DSS considered whether the decision not to apply the law here was reasonable. At the time of finalising this report, Services Australia remains knowingly non-compliant with the law.

The investigation identified some key principles for any agency in remediating an instance of legal non-compliance. The report makes six recommendations to Services Australia and DSS as a result of the investigation.

Key findings

• The action taken by Services Australia and DSS to remediate this issue has not been reasonable.
• Service delivery and policy agencies need to engage properly with each other to remediate issues in a timely and effective way.
• Agencies need to fully understand the financial and non-financial impacts on people to inform their remediation strategy: decisions should be evidence-based.
• Agencies should be transparent with Government and the public – and they should seek Government approval of decisions not to apply the law.