Minister Jim O'Callaghan launches social media campaign to reinforce compliance with Child Maintenance orders
- Published on: 1 October 2025
- Last updated on: 1 October 2025
The Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O’Callaghan has launched a social media awareness campaign to reinforce maximum compliance with child maintenance orders. Child Maintenance is the regular financial support parents give to ensure security and stability for children by assisting with the costs of raising a child.
The awareness campaign will run across several social media and video platforms from today.
Minister Jim O’Callaghan said:
“Child maintenance helps provide stability and security for children. . All parents, whether they are married, separated, living together, or have never lived together, have an obligation to support their children based on what they can afford.
“This campaign aims to encourage parents to proactively engage in those processes and, where possible, to reach voluntary agreements regarding child maintenance, putting their children's needs first through cooperation and a sense of mutual responsibility. I am acutely aware that child maintenance is often an issue after a relationship break up and that coming to agreed arrangements can be challenging in those circumstances.
“The campaign is part of a wider set of actions my department is implementing to reform the family justice system. Making the payment of child maintenance easier is a key priority of that reform.. Child Maintenance Guidelines with an accompanying calculator that will give parents an estimate of how much child maintenance they should pay or receive for their children will be launched in the coming weeks by my department.
“Over time, the full implementation of the recommendations in the Review of the Enforcement of Child Maintenance Orders will help to ensure that paying child maintenance and ensuring payments are received is more straightforward for parents."
The campaign fulfils a key recommendation of Review of the Enforcement of Child Maintenance Orders, which the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration published in January 2024 with the aim of generating maximum compliance with child maintenance orders, to ensure security and stability for children and to assist with preventing poverty.
Minister O’Callaghan added:
"I am committed to improving and modernising family justice processes.
“The overarching aim of the Family Justice Strategy is to build a system that is more efficient, less adversarial, and truly accessible – one the that prioritises safety, transparency, and the best outcomes for children and parents alike.
“This campaign is one of several actions completed under the Strategy, that aims to improve the lives of children and families across the country and clearly signpost the practical supports available to them.”
Information about Child Maintenance and how parents can make arrangements is available here: Child Maintenance.
ENDS.
Notes for Editors
- The Family Justice Strategy 2022-2025, contains nine goals and over 50 actions with the aim of establishing a strong foundation for a reformed family justice system.
- It places children at the centre of the system, emphasises a less adversarial approach, encourages greater use of mediation, seeks to increase information on and awareness of supports and services.
- The Review of the Enforcement of Child Maintenance Orders was published on 8th January 2024, putting forward 26 recommendations focused on generating maximum compliance with child maintenance orders.
- The Review involved a comparative analysis of child maintenance enforcement in seven jurisdictions.
- The recommendations, while mainly focused on strengthening provisions for court enforcement of child maintenance orders, also identified ways to encourage voluntary payment and to assist people to make private arrangements.
- One of the recommendations in the Review was to run an awareness campaign highlighting the importance of paying child maintenance and promoting a ‘culture of paying’.