11 November 2008 | Content provided to you by AAP.

SYDNEY, Nov 11 AAP - Mothers are being made to pay back money to men they wrongly claim fathered their children under changes to child support laws.

Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph under Freedom of Information laws show 18 men cleared by DNA testing have sought to get money paid through the federal Child Support Agency returned to them.

According to the documents, orders for $171,567 have been made against mothers so far, while 300 men have been cleared of being fathers.

Men's Rights Agency director Sue Price said men wrongly named as a father of a child deserved justice.

But Sole Parent's Union president Kathleen Swinbourne said men should raise doubts about paternity when they are first told of the child.

"The money has already been spent on the child; if the mother is forced to pay it back it's hard to imagine the child won't be disadvantaged," she told the Telegraph.

The law, which came into effect on January 1 last year, requires the Family Court to consider issuing orders for repayment where paternity has been successfully challenged.

Meanwhile, in a move which could affect paternity cases, the federal government is moving to make it illegal for anyone to take hair or saliva for DNA testing without permission.

Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus released a discussion paper containing the proposed changes, which could carry a jail term of up to two years, yesterday.

"The proposed new offences don't interfere with the use of DNA testing by the police or courts or lawful access to private paternity testing by parents and guardians," he told The Australian.

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