Spotlight on economic abuse - Good Shepherd Youth & Family ...

Legal and Regulatory Frameworks
Australia’s legal framework for dealing with family violence and safety is complex and
includes state and territory and Commonwealth laws. In addition there are a large number of
other legal frameworks which have some bearing on domestic and family violence. Rather
than trying to capture the full breadth of frameworks the discussion in this section focuses on
some key areas of law and regulation which have significance for understandings of and
responses to economic abuse. These are:
family violence
family law
victims’ compensation
superannuation
migration law
consumer protection laws and regulations.
This list by no means covers all areas of regulation that may be relevant. However, these
areas have particular importance to economic abuse. The foregoing discussion of public
policies captured issues in some other key areas of law, for example, child support and
social security.
Economic abuse in domestic and family violence laws
Regulatory changes in some Australian states since the mid-2000s have seen the formal
acknowledgement of economic abuse as a form of domestic and family violence in law and
there is evidence of general support for this. For example, submissions in response to a
recent proposal that all state and territory family violence legislation should expressly
recognise economic abuse were reported as being “overwhelming (in) support” of the
proposal (ALRC/NSWLRC 2010, p. 176). 10 However, economic abuse is not yet included in
all state and territory legislation. In addition, there is no clear evidence that where there is
legal recognition that this is reflected widely in legal actions and processes responding to
domestic and family violence (ALRC/NSWLRC 2010). While the recency of some legislative
changes makes it difficult to assess how they might impact on outcomes for women it is also
the case that there are few readily identifiable sources of collated information concerning the
outcomes of these provisions in legal processes and decisions.
In the Victorian Government’s Family Violence Protection Act 2008 family violence has been
defined as:
(a) behaviour by a person towards a family member of that person if that
behaviour
is physically or sexually abusive; or
is emotionally or psychologically abusive; or
is economically abusive; or
is threatening; or
is coercive; or
10 Notably the Law Society of New South Wales opposed the inclusion of economic abuse on the
grounds that it would be difficult to prove (ALRC/NSWLRC 2010, p. 216)
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