Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

():  Working in the homelessness sector brings you into contact with many people who have experienced trauma. It's a very common story to hear that someone who in later life becomes homeless turns out to have a trauma history. Trauma has a long tail. We would hear from people who turned up in the homelessness system about various forms of trauma at various stages of life. Perhaps the most heartbreaking stories were from those whose experience of trauma was as a child.

We've also heard similar stories from those giving evidence at the inquiry into the link between family, domestic and sexual violence and suicide. They tell of lives riven by the inability to trust; the inability to form relationships, be they intimate-partner relationships, collegial work relationships, family relationships or friendships; the inability to hold down a job; and the impact of triggers—seemingly minor things: a word, an aroma, a familiar environment, a song—that would catapult them back into their trauma, into panic, into helplessness, into fear and into distress; into fight or flight or being frozen; back into their childhood, back into their trauma. The damage done to the child, in so many instances, remains with them long after the abuse stops, chasing them into adulthood.

For many years, just as their abusers had told them would happen, survivors were not believed, and so they kept it inside. The heavy silence, which for decades was a feature of our collective response, is unforgivable. For far too long, there's been a culture of secrecy and avoidance when it comes to confronting the realities of child sexual abuse. This culture extends not just to the abuse itself but to the structures of justice and redress that should be supporting the most vulnerable individuals in our communities.

I was shocked when I found out that, in our existing legal framework, perpetrators can evade paying their victims-survivors court-ordered compensation by hiding assets in superannuation and declaring bankruptcy. This is the experience of Edan Van Haren, who lives in my electorate of Boothby. Edan is a victim-survivor of child abuse. He has very kindly given me permission to tell his story and use his name in my speech. Unusually, Edan has managed to get both criminal and civil convictions against his perpetrator—and I say 'unusually' because we know that few cases are disclosed, few cases make it to court and it's difficult to establish evidence, and to prosecute, years or sometimes decades after the fact. In 2023, the New South Wales Supreme Court ordered that Edan's abuser pay out $1.4 million to him in compensation. And, from his jail cell, Edan's abuser declared bankruptcy. This meant that the payments that Edan's abuser would ordinarily have had to have paid would become void, while protecting his assets in superannuation—a deliberate and brazen exploitation of our laws that is nothing less than malicious: designed to inflict more pain, more hurt, more trauma. The perpetrator is reaching out from their jail cell and exerting power over their victim all over again, and thousands of other victims-survivors today remain exposed to these underhanded and callous tactics.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (The Survivors Law) Bill 2026 seeks to rectify this shortcoming in our financial structures. It will close a loophole by which perpetrators who have been criminally convicted can avoid paying settlement to their victims-survivors. It will ensure that superannuation is no longer a haven in which perpetrators can seek financial refuge. It will deny perpetrators the opportunities that exist in our current framework to evade accountability. It will affirm the bravery and dignity of victims-survivors, who, having endured so much, continue to endure on their road towards justice.

The bill seeks to do two things: to give victims-survivors access to additional contributions in their offender's superannuation in order to satisfy unpaid compensation orders, and to ensure that compensation debts are not extinguished where the offender has declared bankruptcy. Where offenders fail to meet their legal obligations to satisfy a compensation claim within 12 months, victims-survivors will be able to apply to the ATO for information about the perpetrator's superannuation in advance of applying for a court order. Victims-survivors will then be able to apply for a court order to access certain superannuation contributions of their abuser. Perpetrators will have no recourse to wait out a court order, while shielding their assets in their superannuation, in order to defeat a compensation claim. Victims-survivors will therefore have another tool to be able to enforce unpaid compensation.

The bill will also amend the 1966 Bankruptcy Act to ensure that it continues to fulfill its intended purpose of allowing those in financial distress to make a fresh start, but it will no longer facilitate convicted child-sex-abuse criminals being able to avoid paying court-ordered compensation. Such debts will now survive a declaration of bankruptcy, applying to both current and future bankruptcies. This bill seeks to reset the scales in the victims-survivors' favour by giving victims-survivors real and substantive tools to pursue court ordered compensation—at the end of what is often a long and traumatic process of litigation—and by realigning our financial and legal structures with those values which are at the heart of victim-survivor redress: justice, fairness and accountability. By removing the barriers to victim-survivor compensation, we avoid compounding survivors' harm, trauma and distress.

Of course, this bill is not a magic bullet. It is a first step. Superannuation and bankruptcy are complex and technical legal terrains that require complex and technical legislative responses, and it is the government's intention to get this right. But this bill provides the foundation on which conversation can be had and maintained—the foundation on which future reforms are now conceivable. As I wrote in my submission to the 2023 consultation, 'I'm particularly committed to seeing these changes embrace a civil—not just a criminal—component in the future.' Where an abuser has been found liable in a civil proceeding, where a judge has looked at the evidence and decided, on balance, that abuse did occur even though there may not be a criminal conviction, victims-survivors should have the same ability to enforce compensation—but that is for another time, and this legislation now is a very welcome first step.

Because the government wants to get these changes right, the changes will later be subject to review. Such a review will ensure that these new mechanisms are practical, enforceable and adhere to legal principles; that they make a genuine difference in survivors' lives; and that they are work for survivors and not against them.

The government will continue to consult with those voices that have been instrumental in the creation of this bill: victims-survivors, advocates and legal experts. It is no small thing to have to relive childhood abuse. In fact, it takes a courage that most Australians will never have to muster and hopefully will never have cause to need to muster in their lifetime, especially when it can feel like you're shouting into a void. I therefore thank victims-survivors, their advocates and supporters for speaking out, for sharing their stories and for continuing to share their stories. Be in no doubt: your efforts have changed lives and will continue to change lives far into the future.

For victims-survivors, conviction—where it can be had—is not the end of it and nor is compensation, for that matter. There can be no monetary value on the trauma and pain that victims-survivors experience. But compensation can assist in rebuilding a life. Beyond compensation, what this bill hopes to do is deliver justice—a justice that victims-survivors have already had to fight long and hard for or what Edan has termed 'mechanics of healing'.

Edan's advocacy is not necessarily about himself, although it goes without saying that his story is absolutely important. It is about fixing a fault in the system that enables perpetrators to not only evade the consequences of their actions but continue to victimise their victims through financial means. Edan has asked me to read his words to this House, and it is as follows:

My name is Edan Van Haren.

I am a survivor. For years now, I have fought to close legal loopholes that allow the architect of a child's trauma to hide behind bankruptcy laws and protected superannuation.

Laws that paedophiles used to further abuse their victim-survivors.

This is not about vengeance; it is about the mechanics of healing.

Compensation payments attempt to quantify pain and suffering.

But how do you quantify the pain caused by not being able to hold a job or the pain you feel when someone asks you something as simple as "can you do the dishes for me" and suddenly you are right back there reliving everything.

How do you put a monetary value on not being able to add a time schedule to your 'to do' list because even telling yourself that something needs to be done triggers your PTSD and now you can't even get yourself out bed.

The answer? You can't.

The legal system can't give me back the life and the potential I have lost so it does the next best thing and puts a monetary value on it, because that's all we have.

But for too many years paedophiles have been able to hide assets, sequester funds in superannuation and, worst of all, declare bankruptcy to extinguish the compensation our courts have awarded them.

This in particular added to the pain and suffering.

At twenty years old, I tried to end my life.

I reached a point where the pain of existing was heavier than the fear of dying.

But in surviving that moment I realized, why not stay alive for the other victim-survivors?

When you have already walked to the edge and looked over, you lose the ability to be intimidated.

I am here because I have nothing left to fear, and everything to fight for.

Those were Edan's words, and I'd like to thank him for his advocacy and for his bravery in pursuing his perpetrator and exposing his evil with both criminal and civil convictions. It takes guts to face your perpetrator in an adversarial legal process. Edan's advocacy and the advocacy of so many others, including Lawyer Andrew Carpenter, are what have made a difference. It will change the law now, and it will help, sadly, the so many other victims-survivors in the same situation.

I'd also like to thank former assistant treasurer Stephen Jones, who started this process with a consultation in 2023, which I submitted to, and the Assistant Treasurer, Daniel Mulino, who picked up the baton and kept on the journey to get this done.

To Edan and all the other survivors and advocates, I know for you this is only the start. There is much more you are fighting for. You want recognition of civil findings, not just criminal findings. You want all superannuation on the table, not just additional payments. After all, if somebody is going to be living in poverty as a result of this heinous criminal activity, it should be the perpetrator, not the victim-survivor. This legislation is a really important step forward, and I know that you will keep pushing for the next steps. I want you to know that this government hears you. I hear you and I will keep working with you.

Changing these laws is more than just providing access to financial compensation; it is recognition, it is support, it is the delivery of justice. It is saying to every victim-survivor in Australia 'we hear you; we stand by you; we are on your side'. This bill needs to be passed for the silent pandemic: the hundreds of thousands of Australian victims-survivors, whose lives were irrevocably changed through no fault of their own and who are suffering. I commend the bill to the House.

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