Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

In beginning this speech, I wish to acknowledge the survivors and advocates, and their families, who have joined us in the gallery for the introduction of this Bill. I recognise

Their presence here today is deeply significant. It reflects not only courage, but their enduring commitment to justice, advocacy, and hope.

I also acknowledge the many organisations that have advocated for the introduction of this bill over a long period of time, including, but certainly not limited to, Super for Survivors, Bravehearts, the Grace Tame Foundation, Fighters Against Child Abuse Australia, and the Carly Ryan Foundation.

These reforms have not emerged in isolation. They are the result of sustained advocacy, lived experience,and the determination of survivors and their supporters to improve a system that has too often failed them.

This Bill will enable victims and survivors of child sexual abuse offences to seek access to a perpetrator's superannuation to satisfy unpaid compensation orders, where a criminal conviction has been made.

At its core, this Bill is guided by a simple but fundamental principle: perpetrators of child sexual abuse should not be able to hide behind financial structures to avoid accountability.

For too long, a deeply unjust loophole has allowed convicted offenders to shield assets in superannuation while victims and survivors are left without the compensation they are owed. This Bill closes that loophole and affirms that financial systems must not operate in a way that undermines justice.

This bill aims to prevent superannuation being used to shield a perpetrator's assets from compensation, improve transparency and reduce uncertainty in pursuing compensation. Child sexual abuse causes profound and often lifelong harm. Its impacts extend far beyond the period of abuse itself, in many cases affecting mental health, physical wellbeing, relationships, education, and a person's ability to participate fully in work and community life.

For many survivors, the trauma does not end when the abuse ends. It is something they carry into adulthood, often navigating its effects daily, and too often without adequate support.

The harm is not only emotional and psychological, but also deeply material. Too many survivors face barriers to stable employment and financial security, meaning the consequences of abuse can shape every aspect of their lives.

The Bill also amends the Bankruptcy Act allowing compensation debts to survive perpetrators' bankruptcies, improving the ability of victims and survivors to enforce such debt.

There is a growing recognition that justice is not only about securing a conviction, but about ensuring meaningful redress.

For too many survivors, a conviction has not translated into real-world outcomes. They have endured the trauma of legal proceedings, often reliving deeply painful experiences, only to face further distress when compensation orders go unpaid.

That compounds the harm and undermines confidence in the justice system.

Under this bill, victim-survivors will be able to apply to the Australian Taxation Office {ATO), with appropriate safeguards, to identify any potential eligible superannuation to inform their decision as to whether to seek a court order.

These reforms are a practical and targeted step to address that injustice. They introduce a mechanism to ensure that perpetrators cannot simply wait out their obligations while their financial position remains protected.

Importantly, by allowing compensation debts to survive bankruptcy, this Bill sends a clear and necessary message: financial manoeuvring must not override moral and legal responsibility. Bankruptcy should not be a refuge from accountability for such serious harm.

Unfulfilled historical compensation orders brought into existence before the schedule's commencement will be eligible if they remain legally enforceable.

These changes recognise that there are survivors right now who are being denied justice under the existing framework. By applying to both future and current bankruptcies, this Bill seeks to address not only future harm, but present inequity.

These reforms are intended to strengthen victim-survivors' ability to enforce court-ordered compensation and prevent superannuation being used by perpetrators to shield their assets. When offenders retain substantial retirement savings while victims struggle financially, often as a direct consequence of the abuse they suffered, it undermines confidence in the justice system.

It risks perpetuating a system where the burden continues to fall on those who were harmed, rather than those who caused the harm. These reforms help restore balance and fairness.

The regime established by the Bill will be subject to a review after it commences full operation, to ensure that it is operating effectively for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.

This Bill should be understood as a significant and necessary foundation. It closes a clear loophole, sends a strong signal about the direction of reform, and establishes a framework that can be built upon in the future.

Reviewing these measures after implementation will be critical. It ensures that this Parliament remains engaged with how the law operates in practice, and whether it is truly delivering for victims and survivors.

Our approach must continue to be informed by the voices of survivors, advocates, legal experts and practitioners. When survivors tell us where the system still falls short, it is our responsibility to listen and to act.

Ultimately, this measure is about restoring fairness and dignity. It is about ensuring that the law does not inadvertently protect those who have caused profound harm, while leaving victims and survivors without recourse. It aligns our financial and legal systems with our values: that perpetrators must be held accountable, and that victims and survivors deserve meaningful support and redress.

I thank members from across the chamber, across all political parties and the crossbench, who have offered their support for this Bill and stood alongside me, and alongside survivors, this morning to announce its introduction. Today's show of unity has been demonstration of the Parliament at its best.

Full details of the measure are contained in the Explanatory Memorandum.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Greens to support the Treasury Laws Amendment (The Survivors Law) Bill 2026. At the outset, I want to acknowledge that this bill comes about as a result of years, in some cases decades, of advocacy by survivors and their families and supporters over many years. This bill slightly rebalances the legal system in favour of survivors, victims and their families. And I don't just say that in a shallow way. The strength and the courage that survivors have shown to continue to confront the injustices in our legal system to say that legal works, legal protections—systems that are designed to protect the wealth of perpetrators and prevent survivors from having access to that wealth—need reform and need change.

I also want to commend the work of the Assistant Treasurer and the minister's office. This is an example of when the government does it right—sitting down over time, consulting with survivors, working through law reform, and answering some really difficult questions about how you balance certain rights, such as the rights to protect superannuation and to protect some of those core social safety nets in our system but not do so at the expense of fundamental questions of justice. Often, I rise in this chamber to critique the government about how and why they have gone through a process, but I want to emphasise that this shows that, when politics can put the narrow, political fight on the bottom shelf for a while and focus on law reform that will make a measurable difference to people who desperately need it, we can do it right. What this bill does is give survivors a pathway to enforce what courts have already said they are owed.

What we have seen time and time again is where perpetrators, particularly of child sexual abuse, come from positions of power and wealth and privilege in our society, and they prey upon the powerless in our society. Children by definition are powerless in that situation. But we can't ignore the fact that so often those perpetrators come from positions of power and wealth and privilege. Often, they have led a life that has meant they've accrued significant assets. Their appalling behaviour, their criminal conduct, has destroyed the lives of children and thrown people's lives into chaos for decades. We have seen time and time again, when those same perpetrators are finally held to account and forced into a criminal court, they've often compelled and required their victims to give evidence, to be tested in a criminal court proceeding. Finally, when there's a sense of justice when a conviction is recorded and a perpetrator is put behind bars, they find that, when efforts are made to enforce civil claims against the same perpetrator for the damage and the violence that has been inflicted on survivors, those same perpetrators use legal structures to hide their assets and protect them from survivors.

One of the things that has been apparent when I have been working with survivors—I've spent over a decade and a half in this space—is quite often perpetrators place their assets inside their superannuation. Superannuation assets are protected from civil claims and from enforcement against damages. Survivors have seen this double injustice—the violence, the insult, the crimes against them as a child. They finally see the criminal justice system give them a glimmer of justice in having a conviction recorded, and then when they seek to get civil recovery to make up a small portion of the loss they've suffered as a result of the abuse they find the legal system has allowed this structure in place for the perpetrators to hide their assets inside superannuation, and it can't be accessed in the civil courts.

Superannuation is protected for good reason. It is effectively a social safety net for people when they retire; we understand that. But those protections were never meant to give convicted child abusers a place to park their assets beyond the reach of victims—or, I don't think it was ever intended to do that. Victims with unpaid, court ordered compensation will, when this legislation passes—and I hope it passes unanimously, I think it will—allow those survivors to apply to access a perpetrator's superannuation, where they've hidden their assets to avoid having to pay proper compensation. It applies only where there has been a criminal conviction for child sexual abuse, and we think there is scope for expanding that in the future to other crimes of violence—personal violence and sexual violence. Compensation must also have been unpaid for more than 12 months before the mechanisms in this bill can be used to seek access to superannuation. Importantly, this legislation allows victims to apply to the Australian Taxation Office to identify what superannuation a perpetrator holds, and to help them decide whether or not to pursue a court order. It applies to both future compensation orders and existing unfulfilled historical orders provided they remain legally enforceable.

The Greens have always said that justice for survivors can't stop at a conviction. It doesn't stop with police. It doesn't stop with courts. It doesn't stop with jail. Real accountability means perpetrators need to be held to account, and that includes preventing the justice system or the finance system allowing them to hide their assets from survivors. The bill also amends the Bankruptcy Act so that compensation debts owed to survivors can survive a perpetrator's bankruptcy, because we have been told that perpetrators are using bankruptcy in order to avoid having to pay court ordered compensation to survivors of child sexual abuse. Again, this bill applies to both future and current bankruptcies so that, if people have already been denied a benefit, they have a chance under this legislation. Part of the urgency in passing this today is to ensure offenders don't unscrupulously use bankruptcy again to avoid this law when seeing it about to come into place. Bankruptcy should be a last resort for people in genuine financial hardship and should not be allowed to be a legal manoeuvre to extinguish what someone owes the people that they abused. Closing that loophole is long overdue.

I note that there are safeguards and that there is a review mechanism proposed, but I also know from when we have been speaking with survivors, consulting with the government and talking with legal reform groups that there is still unfinished business here. There are other offences that the Greens and survivors believe this legislation should be extended to. There are possibly unforeseen technical difficulties in the way some of the bankruptcy provisions are proposed. There's also a question as to whether or not there needs to be further action taken once this legislation is in place, because the truth of the matter is that those with money, power and privilege always try to find novel ways and novel schemes to avoid paying compensation for which they are morally and legally liable. I think there are also some questions as to whether or not the retrospective provisions in this bill go back far enough to provide the kinds of protections and redress that survivors have told my office will be necessary for a full measure of justice. So I move the second reading amendment standing in my name in order to hopefully obtain that review. I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that the Government has committed to undertake a review of this measure no more than 3 years following its commencement and that such a review will examine:

(i) whether the objects of the Act have been achieved,

(ii) the extent to which survivors' legitimate interests have been met,

(iii) whether the provisions of the Act adequately capture offences relating to historical child sexual abuse and, if not, whether the provisions of the Act should be amended to capture additional offences within the definition of 'specified child abuse offence',

(iv) the benefits and detriments of extending the Act to also cover cases in which only civil findings of child sexual abuse have been made,

(v) the benefits and detriments of extending the provisions of the Act, or undertaking other actions, to capture a broader range of offences related to sexual assault and family and domestic violence,

(vi) whether further actions are required to prevent perpetrators from using novel schemes and forms of financial restructuring to defeat legitimate compensation claims by survivors,

(vii) whether the retrospective provisions adequately address historical compensation orders and whether gaps remain that perpetuate ongoing injustice, and

(viii) any other matters relevant to the operation of the Act; and

(b) is of the opinion that the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs is the preferred body to undertake this review, and that the review should be completed no later than 12 months after its commencement and a final report should be tabled in the Senate as soon as practicable after completion of the review".

I want to give credit to the minister's team and the minister himself on the spirit in which this legislation has come before the parliament, the way it was consulted on, with survivors at the heart, and the agreement to the second reading amendment to ensure that the review is done openly and with the appropriate depth that I, the Greens and survivors believe will be needed to ensure that justice is done going forward.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition are supporting the Treasury Laws Amendment (The Survivors Law) Bill 2026 and we support survivors. Victims-survivors and their families have waited too long for this action. Australia's superannuation and bankruptcy laws have been weaponised by the worst criminals, and for far too long the parliament has failed to act. Under the current laws, perpetrators have been able to hide assets in superannuation and avoid paying court ordered compensation.

I want to acknowledge Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino for his work to get this law before the parliament, but we also want to acknowledge the work a former Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O'Dwyer, who began work on these reforms in 2018. But, most importantly, we thank the survivors, their families and their advocates, many of whom came to parliament in March, for both their bravery and their persistence. This reform is the result of years of advocacy by survivors and their advocates.

There is more work that could be done to strengthen the laws even further. Indeed, the 2018 reform work considered whether all victims of serious violent crime should be able to access a perpetrator's superannuation as compensation. But we will not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good, particularly when it comes to supporting victims of child sexual abuse. This is not a partisan issue. This should be one that unites the parliament in our shared goal to protect children and to rebuke predators.

Under the current law, we have a situation where paedophiles have been able to boast that their victims won't see a penny of their superannuation. Survivors should not have to fight their abusers once in court and then fight them all over again to get compensation. The current loophole has allowed perpetrators to shield assets in superannuation, declare bankruptcy and, worse, leave survivors with nothing. The Australian parliament is saying, with a unified voice, that enough is enough. Superannuation is for retirement. It should not be used to deny compensation to survivors of child sexual abuse. The coalition support this legislation and we thank the parliament.

Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I won't speak for long—I think survivors have waited long enough—but I do want to indicate that the government supports the amendment moved by Senator Shoebridge. This amendment affirms a commitment which the government has made to review this legislation following its implementation, so we will support that second reading amendment.

It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the Assistant Treasurer, Daniel Mulino, for his work, but in a reciprocal way we want to thank Senator Shoebridge in particular, and your team, as well as senators from across the chamber in this parliament and in previous parliaments for their productive engagement on this legislation. Most importantly, though, I want to pay tribute to those survivors. The passage of this bill is testament to the strength and hope of survivors of child sexual abuse and their families. I commend this bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Original question, as amended, agreed to.

Bill read a second time.