Child Support Review - Taskforce Membership

Patrick Parkinson (Chair)
Patrick Parkinson is a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, and Chairperson of the Family Law Council. He is the editor of the Australian Journal of Family Law and has been the principal national examiner for specialist accreditation in family law since 1999. He is also a member of the Executive Council of the International Society of Family Law.

Prof. Parkinson is co-author of Australian Family Law in Context and has written widely on family law and child protection. He has been a member of the NSW Child Protection Council, and was Chairperson of a major review of the state law concerning child protection which led to the enactment of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 in NSW.

David Stanton (Deputy Chair)
David Stanton is currently a Consultant Social Security Planner, Policy Analyst and Director of Stanton Strategic Solutions. He was Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) from May 1999 to January 2003.

Bruce Smyth
Bruce Smyth is a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies. He has published in the areas of post-separation parental responsibilities, spousal maintenance, pre-nuptial agreements, spousal violence, post-separation financial living standards, patterns of parenting after divorce, parent-child contact and child support, and child support for young adult children.

Deborah Mitchell
Deborah Mitchell is Director of the ACSPRI (Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research) at the Australian National University. She is currently the Editor of the Australian Journal of Social Issues and an Associate Editor of the International Social Security Review. Dr Mitchell's primary research interests include microdata analyses and their application to a range of social, economic and political questions. Her most recent research projects have focused on the panel data of the Negotiating the Life Course project, examining the impact of child care on women's labour force participation and the income mobility of Australian families.

Paul Henman
Paul Henman has conducted a study into the cost of raising a family in Australia examining the cost of housing, food, childcare, health, transport, leisure, personal care, energy, household goods and services.

Matthew Gray
Matthew Gray was appointed as Principal Research Fellow leading the Family and Society Research program at AIFS in November 2000. Previously, he was employed at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the ANU. Mr Gray has undertaken research on a wide range of Australian social and economic policy issues.

Wayne Jackson
Wayne Jackson has been Deputy Secretary in the former Department of Family and Community Services since July 1998. Formerly he was Deputy Secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, responsible for the Social Policy Group.

Ann Harding
Professor Ann Harding is Director of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM). Prof. Harding is particularly experienced in analysing data and constructing models to answer questions about social and economic issues and has overseen the development of microsimulation and other models and research spanning tax, social security, wealth, superannuation, health insurance, pharmaceutical benefits, education, HECS, child care, effective tax rates, housing, and the costs of children.

Last updated: