Services Australia has known it was not fully complying with child support laws for six years, according to a scathing report released by the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
Legislative amendments introduced in 2008 and 2018 created "unintended consequences" in which some parents with less than 35 per cent care of a child were technically eligible for child support, despite a longstanding government policy that this is not the case.
What's next?
A government spokesperson said legislation to rectify the "technical legal anomaly" would be introduced when parliament next sits in February.
Government agency deliberately broke law for years, federal watchdog finds
Administration of the Age Pension
$5b in incorrect age pension payments revealed as seniors left waiting
All the public servants who played top roles over summer
The Australian Taxation Office had a lot of changes over Christmas. Jeremy Hirschhorn acted as commissioner of taxation for almost a month, from December 29 to January 26.
Emma Rosenzweig acted as a second commissioner for most of that time, with Fiona Dillon also filling in for 10 days. Elissa Walker is in the chief information officer role from mid-January until February 6, and Brad Chapman is chief operating officer for about a week.
A liberal in illiberal times Reflections on a decade that was less traumatic than it promised to be
The Trump Administration Is Publishing a Stream of Nazi Propaganda
Government social-media managers have transformed official feeds
How “Bitcoin Jesus” Avoided Prison, Thanks to One of the “Friends of Trump” ProPublica
ICE War on Rights and Safety Continues With Policy of Illegal, Fourth Amendment-Violating Home Break-Ins, Detainee Homicide, and Detention and Transport of Children
ICE lawlessness is only getting worse.
What midterm projections tell us about Trump’s central struggle Ipsos
Trump threatens 100 percent tariff on Canada over China deal Al Jazeera
Europe Rides the Tiger: Jeffrey Sachs on NATO, Trump, and the Collapse of the “Rules‑Based Order ScheerPost
New York convict at large after slipping his ankle monitor onto a dog
As the world finally punches back, was this the week Donald Trump went too far? The Guardian
Brockman Civil Case with Civil Fraud Penalties Settled
I have written before on the Brockman multi-year tax evasion scheme. See here. Brockman was indicted but, before he could be tried, he died, thereby resolving the criminal case without a verdict of guilty or not guilty.
The civil case was settled with entry of the Tax Court decision in Brockman Estate v. Commissioner(T.C. Case No. 764-22 Dkt. # 33 Order Dtd. 12/23/25), here. The decision document addresses the deficiencies and civil fraud penalties under § 6663. As is the nature of decision documents, the decision document does not address the interest on the tax and the penalties. The principal amounts of deficiencies and penalty are major, aggregating $750 MM; the interest which I roughly calculate to 12/24/25 at $782MM brings the total due to over $1.5 billion. I prepared a spreadsheet which I offer for review and download here. (Note that the interest calculations are rough and ready but should be in the ballpark.)
One small error in the Tax Court decision document is that the 2006 civil fraud penalty (§ 6663) is stated as $35,00,000.00 which I infer to be $35,000,000.00.
Bluesky Brain, X Brain: Two Viral Stories From Minnesota Racket News
