Father of 11 called out over massive child support bill owed

Donna McBaron stares at the piece of paper in front of her.

"How much does he owe?" I asked.

"Daryl Whiting owes $121,426.52 in child support," McBaron replied.

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Whiting is McBaron's former partner and the father of their three teenage boys.

The couple separated 15 years ago and McBaron claims she has struggled to support them ever since because Whiting has failed to pay what the Child Support Agency (CSA) said he owes his children.

"We've done without everything. There's everything broken in the house that needs fixing," McBaron said.

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"Clothes, groceries - I have not been able to go and do a grocery shop like normal people, for I could not tell you how long. We rely on charity and good people."

At 62, Whiting has 11 children to four different women.

His children range in ages from being in their 40s to a baby that's four months old.

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A Current Affair found him living in a converted bus on a block of land south of Townsville, in far north Queensland, with his 30-year-old current wife, who has three children with Whiting.

He doesn't deny the massive bill the agency said he owes.

"I know the debts there," he said.

"I will never be able to pay it. I'm not a deadbeat dad. I've been accused of it by Donna for months and months and months."

Whiting claimed he's paid McBaron $150 a week since he left and two days later sent me a list of payments he made in the last four months dating back to March.

"He has, when he feels like it - $100 here and $100 there," McBaron said.

"He started paying a few months back, after I threatened to go public with the amount he owes."

McBaron, a former hairdresser, said she had to give up work to look after her three sons when the couple split because two of the boys have special needs and now she struggles to feed them and pay the mortgage.

Worse still McBaron claimed her sons have on occasions begged their father for help, only to be ignored or told he can't afford to.

But that's "not so", said Whiting, who produced a text conversation with one of his sons saying they have run out of gas and have no hot water.

"So I fixed it," Whiting said.

"I got my oldest son to organise a gas delivery for them."

When we checked with McBaron she told us the gas was delivered, but only after A Current Affair questioned Whiting.

"My children see on Facebook and Instagram that he spoils his new family with trips to the Philippines and it hurts them," McBaron said.

Whiting married his current wife in the Philippines, after she moved to Australia to be with him 10 years ago.

"We weren't going on exorbitant holidays," McBaron said.

"We were going to see my children's grandmother, who's elderly, in the Philippines."

The CSA has now stopped Whiting leaving the country until he pays the amount he owes.

"It's amazing how many people cough up when they are not able to head off to Hawaii for their holiday," Services Australia General Manager Hank Jongen said.

While refusing to discuss this specific case Jongen said: "There are a small number of instances where people absolutely ... avoid paying their commitments to their children."

"We never give up.

"Ultimately what are these people doing - they are hurting their own children the worst."

McBaron claimed her former partner hasn't filed a tax return in years and has put his businesses and possessions in other people's names to avoid showing an income.

Whiting said the land he lives on belongs to his wife and he doesn't even own a car.

ASIC documents show the last business he worked in was owned by one of his sons and his wife.

"I haven't filed a tax return for a while, because I haven't earned anything," Whiting said.

"But I've just done one and hopefully that will put an end to this ridiculous claim."

Whiting said the amount he's supposed to pay is based on when he ran a successful business, which is no longer the case.

Last year the CSA transferred about $3.8 billion to 1.2 million Australian children and while McBaron admitted her ex has paid a small amount, he has paid it directly to her bank account and not made the payment through the agency as the system demands.

When asked why, Whiting responded: "They don't want to listen, I don't pay the child support industry, I pay it into her bank account."

I pointed out, it might help get the CSA off his back if he did make the payments through the system, but Whiting said: "I suppose I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to things like that."

Jongen said he's not aware of any case the CSA haven't won.

"We have a number of levers available to us and that can be anything from recovering money through wages, the tax system or the courts," Jongen said.

But Whiting said he will never pay what he owes his three sons to McBaron.

"I rang them at Christmas time and said, 'Do you realise I will never be able to pay this'?" Whiting said.

"They said, 'Well we will get it out of you, one way or another' and I just said, 'Well mate I am going to die owing the most child support ever'."