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Australia's Hidden Family Law Crisis

The system profits from keeping children away from their parents.

700,000 Australian children. 350,000 alienated parents. A child support formula that financially rewards the parent who restricts access. This is parental alienation — and it is government-enabled abuse.

"The child support system provides perverse incentives for primary caregivers to resist children spending more time with the other parent."

— Professor Parkinson, Family Law Reform Expert
350K+
Alienated parents in Australia
700K+
Children affected right now
19%
Of separated children experience alienation
50%
Risk of PTSD or suicidality for targeted parents
What We're Fighting

Parental alienation is child abuse — enabled by law.

Parental alienation occurs when one parent systematically manipulates a child to reject, fear, or feel hostility toward the other parent. It destroys families. It traumatises children for life. And in Australia, the financial structure of the child support system actively encourages it.

This is not a fringe issue. It happens to fathers and mothers alike, across every postcode. Our laws — written with good intentions — have created the precise conditions for it to flourish.

  • Child support is calculated on nights in care — creating a direct financial incentive to restrict the other parent's time
  • Parental alienation is not recognised as a standalone criminal offence anywhere in Australia
  • Court orders are routinely breached with minimal real consequences for the alienating parent
  • Children who experience alienation face lifelong psychological harm and broken attachment bonds
  • Up to half of targeted parents suffer PTSD, and the suicide rate in this community is devastatingly high
  • The 2024 Family Law reforms removed the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility — making it harder for alienated parents to enforce their rights
Our Campaign

A movement. A roadmap. A demand for change.

Alienation Nation exists to reform the laws, expose the perverse incentives, and fight for every parent and child denied their fundamental right to each other.

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Raise Awareness

Build the community, amplify the stories, and make parental alienation a national conversation politicians can no longer ignore.

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Reform the Law

Push for legislation that recognises PA as child abuse, penalises access denial, and decouples child support from custody nights.

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Support Survivors

Connect targeted parents and their children with legal guidance, peer support, and expert resources to rebuild what was taken.

The Problem

Australia pays parents to keep children away from their other parent.

This isn't an accident. It's a structural flaw in our child support legislation — identified by experts for decades, acknowledged by government, and never fixed.

The Perverse Incentive

How the money drives the abuse

Australia's child support system, introduced in 1988, calculates payments based on the number of nights a child spends with each parent. This creates a financial logic that is deeply dangerous.

When a parent reduces the other parent's nights from, say, 120 nights to zero — they become entitled to maximum child support. The Child Support Agency calculates based on what is actually occurring, not what court orders say.

The result: a parent can defy a court order, alienate children from their other parent, and be financially rewarded for doing so. The system does not merely permit this — it structurally incentivises it.

"The child support system provides perverse incentives for primary caregivers to resist children spending more time with the other parent to avoid a reduction in the child support obligation."

Professor Parkinson — Parliamentary Submissions

"Despite several objections including copies of agreed orders, CSA would only base their decision on actual care percentage. It's a rort."

— Survivor testimony submitted to Parliament
$0
Typical penalty for breaching parenting orders
1988
Year the system was introduced — the perverse incentive has existed ever since
The Scale

A national emergency hiding in plain sight.

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350,000+ Parents

Estimated Australians currently experiencing moderate to severe parental alienation from their children.

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700,000+ Children

Children subjected to parental alienation — suffering manipulation, identity disruption, and broken attachment bonds.

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50% Mental Health Risk

Up to half of all targeted parents experience PTSD, suicidal ideation, or attempt suicide. A "living bereavement."

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19% of Separated Families

Nearly one in five children whose parents separate experiences some form of parental alienation.

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Still Not a Crime

PA is not classified as a criminal offence anywhere in Australia, despite being psychological child abuse under the DSM-5.

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Years Lost

Family Court delays mean children spend years separated from a loving parent while cases drag on. Time that can never be recovered.

Government Response

Too little. Too slow. Too late.

Some progress has been made — coercive control is now a criminal offence in NSW, Queensland, and South Australia. The 2025 Family Law framework has updated its definition of family violence to include psychological abuse.

But parental alienation remains unrecognised as a standalone offence. The perverse financial incentive in the child support formula is untouched. And the 2024 Family Law reforms — by removing the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility — have actually made it harder for targeted parents to assert their rights.

In the 2025 Federal Election, family law reform was absent from all major party platforms. This is precisely why a movement is needed.

A Timeline of Inaction
88

Child Support System Introduced

The Hawke Government launches the scheme — and the perverse financial incentive is built in from day one.

11

Parkinson Report Flags the Problem

A leading expert formally documents the financial incentive flaw in parliamentary submissions. No structural reform follows.

24

Coercive Control Criminalised in NSW

A step forward — but it does not cover parental alienation, and only applies to intimate partners, not parent-child manipulation.

25

Family Law Amendment Bill 2024

Most significant overhaul in decades removes the equal shared parental responsibility presumption — with no replacement protection for alienated parents.

Our Story

We didn't choose this fight. The system made the choice for us.

Alienation Nation was born from personal experience — the experience of a father and his daughters navigating a system that was supposed to protect them, and instead was turned against them.

Like hundreds of thousands of Australian families, what began as a painful separation became something far more destructive: a systematic campaign, enabled and incentivised by the very structure of Australia's child support and family law system, to cut children off from a loving parent.

"The most devastating thing was not losing the relationship. It was watching the system reward the person who broke it."

We have seen firsthand how child support calculations tied to overnight stays create a financial logic that encourages one parent to restrict the other's access. We have seen court orders breached with impunity. We have seen the burden of proof fall entirely on the targeted parent — while the alienating parent faces no consequences.

But this story does not belong only to us. It belongs to 350,000 Australian parents and their children. To the fathers and mothers who describe their loss as a "living bereavement." To the adult children of alienation who grow up to recognise, with grief and anger, what was taken from them.

We started Alienation Nation because staying quiet is a form of complicity. And because we believe that when enough people speak with one voice, systems change.

Why This Name

We chose Alienation Nation because this is not one family's story. It is a national condition — normalised, legislated into existence, and ignored by those with the power to fix it. A nation that alienates its children from their parents is a nation failing at its most fundamental responsibility.

Share Your Story

Your experience — shared anonymously or with your name — becomes part of the evidence we take to Parliament, to the media, and to the Australian public.

Voices of the Movement

We are not alone.

"I paid child support every fortnight for six years. I saw my son twelve days that year. The system saw nothing wrong with this."

— Father, NSW

"My daughters were told I had abandoned them. I was in court trying to see them the entire time. The lies became their reality."

— Father, Queensland

"When I finally reconnected with my father as an adult, the grief was overwhelming — for both of us. Those years cannot be returned."

— Adult child of alienation, Victoria

"I was alienated as a mother. People assume it only happens to fathers. The system failed me exactly the same way."

— Mother, Western Australia

Testimonials shared with permission. Identifying details withheld for privacy.

Take Action

Change doesn't happen by itself.
It happens because people demand it.

Sign the petition. Share your story. Join the movement. Every name, every voice, every story adds to the pressure that forces Parliament to act.

01

Sign the Petition

Add your name to our formal petition for legislative reform. We are presenting to Parliament — your signature counts.

02

Share Your Story

Anonymised testimonials form the human evidence base that changes minds in committee rooms and newsrooms alike.

03

Spread the Word

Share alienationnation.com. Talk to your local MP. Tell your story on social media. Awareness is the first step to reform.

Sign the Petition

We are calling on the Australian Government to recognise parental alienation as child abuse and immediately reform the Child Support System's perverse financial incentives.

1,247 Australians have already signed. Join them.
Our Demands

Six reforms that would change everything.

These are not radical asks. They are the minimum changes required to stop the system from rewarding parental alienation and begin genuinely protecting children and their right to both parents.

  • 01
    Recognise parental alienation as child abuseEnshrine PA in the Family Law Act as psychological child abuse and coercive control — with equal legal standing to physical family violence.
  • 02
    Cut child support for access-denying parentsReduce or suspend child support where a parent is found to be unlawfully restricting the other parent's court-ordered time.
  • 03
    Enforce parenting orders with real consequencesMandate meaningful penalties — including potential loss of custody — for repeated, documented parenting order breaches.
  • 04
    Fast-track parent-child contact disputesCreate specialist fast-track court pathways for contact matters — delays are themselves a form of alienation.
  • 05
    Reinstate shared parental responsibilityRestore the presumption that both parents should be meaningfully involved, with robust safeguards for genuine safety concerns.
  • 06
    Call a Royal CommissionEstablish a Royal Commission into the family law and child support system to expose the full scale of harm and drive root-and-branch reform.

Share Your Story

Your experience — shared anonymously or with your name — becomes part of the evidence we present to Parliament, to the media, and to the Australian public.

Resources

You are not alone. Here is where to go.

Whether you need legal guidance, peer support, or expert backing — these organisations are doing important work in this space.

Key Organisations

Who is fighting alongside us

Research & Advocacy

Dialogue in Growth

Dr Stan Korosi's platform — one of Australia's most credible voices on PA. Policy briefs, research, and clinical support for parents and practitioners.

dialogueingrowth.com.au ↗
Community & Advocacy

PACTS — Parental Alienation in Australia

A community of 5,000+ Australians affected by PA that has submitted research to Senate Inquiries and campaigns for systemic change.

Find on Facebook ↗
Legal Framework

Eeny Meeny Miney Mo Foundation

Calls for legislation against parental alienating behaviours, using the clinical framing of "Parent-Child Trauma-Coerced Attachment and Alienation."

emmm.org.au ↗
Father Advocacy

Dads4Kids

Policy reform advocacy focused on father involvement and child support reform. Their detailed 7-point reform plan is the most concrete proposal in the space.

dads4kids.org.au ↗
Men's Mental Health

Counselling for Men (Sydney)

Trauma-informed therapy for men experiencing parental alienation, specialising in grief, identity, and rebuilding after family court trauma.

counsellingformen.com.au ↗
Family Law

Family Relationship Advice Line

Government-funded free advice on post-separation parenting. The first call to make if you don't know your legal options.

Call 1800 050 321
Legal Pathway

Your options, step by step.

This is not legal advice — always consult a qualified family lawyer. But understanding the system's pathways gives you power.

"Navigating the family law system while emotionally devastated is one of the hardest things a person can do. Knowledge is armour."

— Alienation Nation

  • Document Everything

    Keep records of all contact attempts, missed visits, and communications. Timestamps, screenshots, and witnesses are vital. Evidence wins cases.

  • Attempt Family Dispute Resolution (FDR)

    Mediation is legally required before most court applications. It can resolve issues faster and demonstrates good faith to the court.

  • Apply for Parenting Orders

    If mediation fails, apply to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. Request a Family Report and Independent Children's Lawyer.

  • File for Contravention if Orders Are Breached

    File a contravention application. The court can impose penalties, require make-up time, or vary existing orders.

  • Seek Urgent Orders if Necessary

    In serious cases, urgent interim orders can be granted quickly. Document psychological risk to children clearly and apply immediately.

  • Contact Your MP

    Write to your local MP and crossbench senators. Be specific about what reform you want. The law changes when politicians hear from enough constituents.

If You're in Crisis Right Now

Please reach out.

The grief of parental alienation is real and profound. You do not have to carry it alone.

Lifeline

24/7 crisis support

13 11 14

Beyond Blue

Mental health support

1300 22 4636

MensLine Australia

For men under pressure

1300 78 99 78