To help the Ministerial Taskforce on Child Support in its review of the Child Support Scheme, the Australian Institute of Family Studies recently conducted a study of public attitudes to child support. This article summarises key findings from the study. The authors discuss attitudes relating to broad principles of the Scheme, the extent to which new partners and second families should be taken into account, and the link between child support and parent child contact. The research is predicated on the belief that community perceptions, values and expectations, particularly those of separated parents, need to be understood as part of the evolving nature of child support policy.