Legal Question in Family Law in Australia

Re: Claiming Child Support

The important thing to remember is that the issue of child support is a separate issue to that of child surname.

You wont be relieved of your obligation to pay child support for any of the reasons set out in your question. That is not to say that there may not be other reasons that child support payments will be varied, but they certainly wont be varied because of the use of a different surname, or because your ex partner has remarried.

In relation to the surname, the mother shouldnt go changing the surname of your child without your consent. You could apply for an order to have her restrianed from doing so. Why not approach her with the idea of using a hyphenated name? If the child has become used to the new name because the child has been using it for some time, the Court may be reluctant to further disrupt things by changing it back.