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

I rise to speak to a report tabled out of session from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, Financial abuse: an insidious form of domestic violence, which was tabled in December. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Acting Deputy President and members of the Senate, I want to indicate to you that the scale of this is off the charts. It's affected 1.6 million Australian women alone. That's not to say there aren't men who experience it, but predominantly this insidious form of control is being experienced by women. The cost of this is $5.7 billion per annum, so this is no small thing. It's an insidious interpersonal form of control. It's very dangerous, it's growing in frequency, and it certainly attempts to strip victims of their independence, their security and, too often, their hope. It's certainly not as visible as a bruise from physical domestic violence, it's not as loud and it doesn't always involve a raised voice or a raised hand, but it is powerfully impactful and devastating, and its impact can be very, very long-lasting. We took evidence about decadal experiences of financial abuse.

Financial abuse can take many, many forms. It could be a partner draining a shared bank account, withholding child support, coercing a victim into debt or manipulating superannuation to leave someone with nothing. For too long, financial abuse has remained hidden in the shadows of our national conversation about domestic and family violence. Given Australians' absolute sense of outrage at physical domestic violence, this is a matter that I think is now ripe for Australians to consider and discuss and for us as a parliament to work on, along with the financial services sector, the banks, government agencies and, indeed, the legal profession, to address the incredible challenges that face us as a nation.

This report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, which I'm very pleased to chair, has been tabled with over 60 recommendations which seek to deal with this insidious issue. Our inquiry exposed a large number of concerns about the systemic failure that allows perpetrators to manipulate financial systems unchecked. This is the report. I want to acknowledge the members of the committee, who unanimously adopted the terms of this report. As I said, I'm privileged to share this report. The deputy chair, the Hon. Alex Hawke MP, another New South Wales member, did a great job in helping us manage the extraordinary experience of the evidence that we received. It was truly one of the most harrowing periods of evidence that I've received. I know, Acting Deputy President Cox, that you've referred to reports you tabled about violence against women. This is of that kind—an outrage to ordinary, decent Australians but something that's being done and is proliferating.

I want to thank the members: Andrew Bragg, Mr Georganas, Mr Howarth and Dr Mulino, who accepted the terms of the report, and also Senator Pocock. I acknowledge the incredible work that was done by Senator Louise Pratt in bringing this forward. I also thank Senator Paul Scarr, who attended so many of the hearings. Our thought leader on this, who really drew it to the attention of the committee, was my colleague from the other place the member for Swan, Ms Zaneta Mascarenhas. I thank our wonderful secretariat, led by Ivan Powell and including Sean Turner—who was the committee secretary for a period of time—Dr Jon Bell, Morgan Jacobs, Rachel Benzie, Senal Kiridena and Julia Bowan Crockett, who did the most remarkable job in pulling this evidence together.

This is such a big report that there's no way that we are going to cover it off, and at the end I'm going to seek leave to continue, because I will continue to come back and speak to what's going on in here. But today I want to commence, because people in this place, operating out of what we would perhaps describe as a normal moral code, are actually shocked by the nature of some people's behaviours with regard to their intimate partners.

There was a report that was delivered for the previous government under the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in 2020. It was entitled Preventing the financial abuse of women: literature and desktop review. I acknowledge that it was done by a group of thought providers and researchers from KPMG. We've had plenty of discussions about consultancies, but when people do good work we should acknowledge it.

This is just a tiny sample of some of the behaviours that 1.6 million Australian women have experienced and that costs our economy $5.7 billion a year; it comes under figure 1.7: controlling her access to economic resources; controlling her access to money; not allowing her to have money; not giving her any money; taking away money given to her; preventing her from accessing benefit money, including child benefit; not allowing her to have access to her bank account; making her close down her bank account; preventing her from having access to her debit card or cheque book; destroying her debit card and cheque book; and changing her PIN without telling her. That's just the first tiny little bit of the list in terms of controlling behaviour. The next layer is actually stealing her money—taking her wages and benefit money, taking child benefit money, child tax credits, Sure Start grants and, if you can believe this, maternity pay.

This is an outrage to every decent person in the nation. But it is proliferating, with 1.6 million women impacted by behaviours of this kind: spending money from the joint account, taking money from her purse, taking money left on the side, taking birthday money, selling vouchers, taking her savings and the children's savings, borrowing money from her and never paying it back, intimidating her into giving him money, ripping up her money. Just stop for a second to imagine that interaction in a household in Australia tonight, where, having worked and earned money, a woman takes home cash that is literally chopped up or ripped up in front of her—the physical offence of that, and the working out of that in terms of an impact on her capacity to look after herself and her children. Then there is pawning her possessions, selling the children's possessions, and of course gambling with her money.

I've got only one minute and 44 seconds left. That was one chart that is embedded in the report. I've gone nowhere near any of the recommendations for banks and financial service providers, for financial product advisers, for superannuation entities, for the government and government agencies and indeed for the legal profession.

This is an ecosystem that is enabling people like that to inflict insidious and profoundly harmful damage on our fellow citizens, and it's got to stop. It has to be named. It has to be called out. And we need a dedicated and coordinated response to create conditions in which this sort of behaviour is acknowledged as intolerable, is not rewarded and is absolutely punished.

In reality, economic coercion is the primary reason victims remain trapped in unsafe relationships. It is exactly the sorts of behaviours that I've just described, by people who perpetrate the use of their power over another, that leads to incredible suffering over extended periods and damages the health and wellbeing of an entire generation of children who are caught up in it. I seek leave to continue my remarks, if there are no other comments, and I will be coming back to speak about this report at every opportunity I have. Thank you very much.

Leave granted.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just quickly on the same report, if I can provide my compliments to Senator O'Neill. Don't leave while I'm paying you a compliment, Senator O'Neill! I think Senator O'Neill provided outstanding leadership to this inquiry and consistently throughout this term has also provided outstanding leadership of the Joint Standing Committee on Corporations Law and Financial Services. As you mentioned, Senator O'Neill, there were outstanding contributions in relation to this inquiry, in particular from the member for Swan and I think that should be noted. A lot of thought went into the recommendations made in the report. I was very pleased to be part of that detailed consideration, and I do hope that the government seriously considers those recommendations. I was personally shocked by much of the evidence that we heard, and I think there are matters which should be addressed on an urgent basis as a matter of priority. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted.

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

Can I thank you for those kind words, Senator Scarr, and acknowledge your fantastic contribution not only to that report but to the committee as well.