New research shows how courts, banks, and Centrelink can facilitate financial abuse

New Swinburne research has revealed the web of systems through which financial abuse can be perpetrated, largely unchecked and with significant perpetrator autonomy.

Research author Swinburne’s Professor Kay Cook was part of the team that analysed publicly available submissions from the 2023 parliamentary inquiry into financial abuse. The team focused on submissions from individuals who had experienced intimate-partner financial abuse.    

“Perpetrators of intimate-partner financial abuse continue to be afforded privacy in their handling of personal finances, while victim-survivors are often left with public debts,” she explains. 

“Private systems of financial wealth, like banking institutions, private businesses, superannuation, and trust accounts give perpetrators of financial abuse opportunities to extract financial benefits and inflict financial harms on victim-survivors.”  

The analysis found that auxiliaries, such as bank managers, personal tax accountants, and family lawyers opened the door to continued financial abuse, as they inadvertently facilitated a perpetrator’s financial harms through legal pathways and continued client services.  

Victim-survivors experience the consequences of these financial harms for many years after separation, explains Professor Cook.  

“Victims’ financial resources are diminished, safe housing is compromised, and they are bound to public systems and public debts, through Centrelink child support, the Australian Taxation Office, and the family courts.”

“The good news is that the Government is currently taking action on the weaponisation of their child support and tax system due to growing understanding about how intimate-partner financial abuse can occur.”

The paper suggests avenues for further research to identify specific cross-system sites where intersectoral intervention may be possible.

Associate Professor Georgina Dimopoulos of Southern Cross University, one of the paper’s authors, says the research highlights the family law system as a site of continued financial abuse post-separation. 

“The family courts are enabling financial abuse through the misuse of court processes, victim-survivors not being able to afford legal representation, and perpetrators draining victim-survivors’ financial resources through prolonged litigation,” says Associate Professor Dimopoulos.  

“Recent reforms to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) to address systems abuse and to better recognise the impacts of intimate partner financial abuse on women’s financial security and independence following separation are promising. 

“But whether these reforms will combat the insidious weaponisation of the family law system by perpetrators remains to be seen.”