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The gendered framing of Australia's child support reforms
conference contribution
posted on 2023-05-23, 05:51 authored by Cook, K, Natalier, KIn Australia, as in other jurisdictions, child support has become a political hot topic, and one with the potential to deepen and challenge socio-legal understandings of masculinity, autonomy and the legal construction of the 'father figure'. However, to date sociological work on child support reform in Australia has focused on describing manifest outcomes, with far less emphasis on analysing the latent framing of child support as a policy issue. In this paper we adopted Bacchi' s (1999) concept of framing to analyse the connections and disconnections between recommendations made in the child support section of the 2003 Inquiry into Child Custody, the subsequent 2005 Ministerial Taskforce report responding to those recommendations, and the resultant 2006-08 legislative child support amendments. The framing of child support reflected more than a response to men's rights activists' claims that the previous child support scheme asked men to pay too much and was not fair. It reinforces the socio-legal construction of men as autonomous and financially and emotionally selfreliant subjects who control their lives and finances. Child support is represented as less a financial question and more a question of masculinity and identity in changing family structures and relations.
History
Publication title
Proceedings of 2011 TASA Conference: Local Lives/Global NetworksEditors
S Threadgold, E Kirby and J GermovPagination
1-14ISBN
9780646567792Department/School
School of Social SciencesPublisher
The Australian Sociological AssociationPlace of publication
Newcastle, AustraliaEvent title
2011 TASA ConferenceEvent Venue
NewcastleDate of Event (Start Date)
2011-11-28Date of Event (End Date)
2011-12-01Rights statement
Copyright 2011 TASARepository Status
- Restricted