- Dad's love costs
- By Paula Beauchamp
- Herald Sun
- 20/11/2003 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: admin ( 75 articles in 2003 )
A LIME green truck is parked near the sink.
Its owner, a six-year-old blonde, smiles back at you from photos pasted on the fridge. Jane (not her real name) is away at mum's house.
But next week the prep student will be back with dad Paul for five days -- because he paid $10,000 to her mum.
Paul, a self-employed software engineer, claims Jane's mum would only sign shared custody documents if he gave her the one-off cash payment.
"It's disgraceful to have to pay for time with your kids, despicable that the system does this to you," Jane's dad said.
"But the money will run out. Time with my daughter won't, not for the next 13 years."
The committed father became "a Disneyland dad" when he separated three years ago.
"I got your typical 'cookie-cutter' orders -- every second weekend and time in the off-week," said Paul, who pays $200 a week child support.
"What kind of a relationship can you build on that?"
Paul then tried to negotiate with his ex-wife for a block of time with Jane. Instead he was slapped with an intervention order that alleged violence and prohibited all contact with his daughter.
"My ex-wife knew the child support cut-off points, so she wasn't going to budge," he said.
Under the Child Support Agency's formula, main carer payments drop dramatically when a payer parent houses the child for at least 110 nights a year.
Paul, facing possibly months without seeing his daughter, devised the shared care payment. With Paul's accountant as the go-between, money changed hands and residence orders were signed and lodged the same day.
No mention is made of the $10,000 in the court order. Paul claims his ex-wife would not have agreed without the cash.
"It didn't matter that I had the fathering capabilities and the desire to care for my daughter," he said. "I was the breadwinner."
Like Paul, a Melbourne man aged in his forties told INSIGHT he was paying his ex-partner for guaranteed contact with his children.
"I'd turn up (for contact) and they wouldn't be there. I'd see them maybe a fortnight later, maybe not," he said.
"Now I pay the $40 as a kind of bonus system. I give her the cash, she gives me the kids."
Its owner, a six-year-old blonde, smiles back at you from photos pasted on the fridge. Jane (not her real name) is away at mum's house.
But next week the prep student will be back with dad Paul for five days -- because he paid $10,000 to her mum.
Paul, a self-employed software engineer, claims Jane's mum would only sign shared custody documents if he gave her the one-off cash payment.
"It's disgraceful to have to pay for time with your kids, despicable that the system does this to you," Jane's dad said.
"But the money will run out. Time with my daughter won't, not for the next 13 years."
The committed father became "a Disneyland dad" when he separated three years ago.
"I got your typical 'cookie-cutter' orders -- every second weekend and time in the off-week," said Paul, who pays $200 a week child support.
"What kind of a relationship can you build on that?"
Paul then tried to negotiate with his ex-wife for a block of time with Jane. Instead he was slapped with an intervention order that alleged violence and prohibited all contact with his daughter.
"My ex-wife knew the child support cut-off points, so she wasn't going to budge," he said.
Under the Child Support Agency's formula, main carer payments drop dramatically when a payer parent houses the child for at least 110 nights a year.
Paul, facing possibly months without seeing his daughter, devised the shared care payment. With Paul's accountant as the go-between, money changed hands and residence orders were signed and lodged the same day.
No mention is made of the $10,000 in the court order. Paul claims his ex-wife would not have agreed without the cash.
"It didn't matter that I had the fathering capabilities and the desire to care for my daughter," he said. "I was the breadwinner."
Like Paul, a Melbourne man aged in his forties told INSIGHT he was paying his ex-partner for guaranteed contact with his children.
"I'd turn up (for contact) and they wouldn't be there. I'd see them maybe a fortnight later, maybe not," he said.
"Now I pay the $40 as a kind of bonus system. I give her the cash, she gives me the kids."
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