Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to begin by acknowledging that it is Women's Health Week. What a week to acknowledge the meaningful change our government has made towards protecting victims of financial abuse. Devastatingly, a major threat to women's health is domestic violence. That's why we endeavoured last year in our inquiry into financial abuse to properly recognise economic control as a form of domestic violence, and Labor want to increase the level of support for victims. Women already face major barriers in achieving economic equality, whether that's accessing equal pay at their workplace or having a say in financial decisions in their home. It's beyond unfair that they're so disproportionately impacted by such insidious forms of domestic abuse.

I was proud in the last parliament as Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services to conduct that inquiry and publish our unanimous report, with 61 recommendations, titled Financial abuse: an insidious form of domestic violence. What was clear to us is that the onus should not be on victims of financial abuse to rectify their own situation. We saw that too many financial institutions had systems that protected perpetrators and made it challenging or impossible for victims to escape situations of coercive economic control. By empowering financial institutions to initiate relevant checks, to ensure equal access to joint accounts and to establish greater transparency when operating shared accounts, there is space for intervention in highly coercive behaviours. Sharing the responsibility for preventing financial abuse is critical to protecting victims. For too long, systems have enabled perpetrators to control and weaponise finances. For too long, women have bravely escaped abusive situations only to be left with a future swamped in partner-acquired debt—sometimes immense debts. For too long, good Australians have ignored financial abuse as a form of insidious domestic violence.

Labor has recognised that having victim and advocate involvement in designing legislation reform is invaluable to making a legitimate change. Crimes like financial abuse are so subtle to those outside the relationship that to recognise when they're occurring has actually been a long-term challenge. It's been far too easy for perpetrators to exploit current institutional systems, and the evidence is that, without legislation informed by victims, it's hard to catch and respond to these behaviours where they are occurring.

Like most forms of domestic violence, financial abuse disproportionately affects the most vulnerable. It's not okay that our First Nations people—Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders—are disproportionately targeted by financial abuse. So are the elderly and, tragically, those with disabilities. People shouldn't have to carry these horrific experiences with them their whole life. Everyone deserves to have and experience financial freedom and to live a life that's safe, and their ability to do this shouldn't be taken away by abhorrent crimes.

We've taken necessary steps to uphold our obligations to victims of financial abuse. There is much more to do, but we've already begun. Sadly, survivors can be abused even if they have escaped their situation. In fact, we know the most dangerous time for a domestic violence victim is not during the relationship but in the time after leaving. How terrifying to leave a domestic violence situation and know not only that the perpetrator has unmitigated access to your financial accounts but also that the choices you made under duress might place you in significant debt or legal trouble. That's why Labor's recent reform to empower Services Australia to waive debts that have resulted through coercive control will help victims-survivors to recover and ensure that our social systems are not complicit in such horrendous abuse. This was one of those very serious recommendations by the committee in the unanimous report with the 61 recommendations—for the government, not just financial institutions, to look at our systems and see where we are enabling. We have to change our structures.

I want to sincerely thank the Minister for Social Services, Tanya Plibersek. This action is what authentic leadership and action in the national interest looks like, and it's happened very quickly on the back of good work done by senators who are united in our service of the nation. It's past time that we protect victims and stop conniving perpetrators from weaponising financial institutions and social security measures, and we will continue to act to protect victims of financial abuse.