The ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) recently hosted a three-day international symposium on child support at the ANU. Associate Professor Bruce Smyth (ADSRI) and Dr Kay Cook (RMIT University) convened the event. The symposium was a huge success.

Held at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU from 28-30 October, the symposium provided researchers, policymakers, service delivery professionals and practitioners working in the area of child support the opportunity to build stronger collaborative links, both nationally and internationally. Current and future challenges for child support policy, research and service delivery were the focus of the meeting.

The symposium comprised three inter-related workshops: Day 1 – The international context; Day 2 – The Australian context; and Day 3 – Policy, practice and service delivery issues. Two of the world’s leading child support scholars, Professors Christine Skinner (UK) and Daniel Meyer (USA), presented keynote papers.  Fifty delegates attended, comprising academics from around Australia and New Zealand, and senior bureaucrats from the Department of Human Services, the Department of Social Services, and other Commonwealth Departments and NGOs. Professor Richard Chisholm chaired the event.

CASS was the major sponsor of the symposium, with additional support provided by the Australian Research Council (LP0989558), and RMIT University.

The symposium conveners are currently exploring publishing key papers from the symposium in a special issue of a journal.

Photo: Kay Cook, Bruce Smyth, Christine Skinner and Daniel Meyer.

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