In its response to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services’ inquiry into financial abuse as an insidious form of domestic violence, the federal government expressed support or support in principle for 58 of the 61 recommendations. Some of the committee’s recommendations touched on credit, privacy, insurance, superannuation, taxation, trusts, child support, company directorships, workforce capability, and whole-of-government coordination.

Financial abuse-where perpetrators use money, assets, or systems to control victims-spans multiple sectors. The committee’s report highlighted how abusers exploit gaps across banking, credit, tax, corporate, superannuation, child support, social security, and legal systems. The government’s response reflects growing recognition that financial abuse is not just a personal issue but a systemic one.

Among the relief options under consideration, the federal government is contemplating providing courts in family law proceedings with more flexibility to transfer a tax or social security debt to the spouse perpetrating the financial abuse. “The change would mean victim-survivors would no longer need to engage the ATO’s administrative processes when they are already before the courts,” Rowland said in the joint media release.

• Allowing the ATO to block rollovers into self-managed super funds when financial abuse, fraud, misconduct, or possible consumer harm is suspected.
• Draft legislation to protect victims coerced into company directorships, shielding them from debts imposed through pressure or manipulation.
• Over $180 million in new funding to reform the child support system, addressing gaps that enable coercive behavior.
• Support for Services Australia to waive social security debts incurred due to family and domestic violence.

The Economic Abuse Reference Group (EARG), a network of over 70 community organizations, welcomed the government’s response but urged faster implementation. Lody Stewart, EARG’s national coordinator, emphasized that financial abuse cuts across systems, banking, tax, superannuation, and legal, and requires urgent law reform. “Perpetrators can exploit gaps across banking, credit, tax, corporate, superannuation, child support, social security, and legal systems,” Stewart said. “We urgently need law reform to tackle the weaponisation of the tax system by perpetrators of intimate partner financial abuse,” added Professor Ann Kayis-Kumar, founding director at UNSW Tax and Business Advisory Clinic.

This month in Sydney, Australia’s assistant treasurer plans to host roundtables to discuss further steps against financial abuse. Attendees will include regulators, financial services peak bodies, professional associations, legal clinics, victim-survivor advocates, and financial counsellors. Meanwhile, the government highlighted its ongoing efforts including draft legislation to be released later this year to protect victim-survivors coerced into company directorships and the associated liabilities, with administrative uplift support from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).