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

a. DEEWR and Job Services Australia Guidelines, Advices and Job Aids;
b. Fair Work Australia material;
c. Fair Work Ombudsman material;
d. Safe Work Australia Codes of Practice and other material; and
e. other similar material. (ALRC 2011c, p. 11)
The ALRC has also recommended that where relevant and appropriate, all Australian
Prudential Regulation Authority, Department of Human Services, Australian Taxation Office
and superannuation fund material, should provide for a consistent definition of family
violence in line with its guideline (ALRC 2011c, p. 11). At the time of writing it was not known
whether any of these changes had been made.
Family law
Very recent changes to the Commonwealth Family Law Act 1975 have seen a broadening of
the definition of family violence in family law including the incorporation of economic abuse.
Family violence is now defined as “violent, threatening or other behaviour by a person that
coerces or controls a member of the person’s family (the family member), or causes the
family member to be fearful” (Family Law Act 1975 s4AB). Examples of behaviour which
may constitute family violence include the following:
(g) unreasonably denying the family member the financial autonomy that he or
she would otherwise have had; or
h) unreasonably withholding financial support needed to meet the reasonable
living expenses of the family member, or his or her child, at a time when the
family member is entirely or predominantly dependent on the person for
financial support. (Family Law Act 1975 s4AB)
Family law matters include separation and divorce, relationships with children and property
matters. While the ways in which family law systems and processes operate in all of these
matters can have significance for women’s economic outcomes, in relation to economic
abuse the settlement of property is significant. Child support arrangements are also
significant and some of the key issues with these were discussed in the previous section
concerned with policy issues. In relation to property settlements two recent law reform
reviews have recommended that the Australian Government “should initiate an inquiry into
how family violence should be dealt with in respect of property proceedings under the Family
Law Act 1975 (Cth)” (ALRC 2011c, p. 630). Some of the issues relevant to economic abuse
and property settlements are highlighted in the discussion of superannuation below.
Superannuation
Unequal participation in employment—including the problem of gender pay inequity—places
women at a disadvantage compared to men in regard to their financial wellbeing in
retirement. For example, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees has estimated
that the “median superannuation balance for women aged between 55 and 64 years is
$53,000, compared to $90,000 for men in the same age group” (de Silva & Harnath 2011, p.
11).
However, there are also some particular aspects of superannuation arrangements and its
regulation that are specifically relevant to economic abuse. The first of these concerns the
possibility of loss of personal superannuation through economic abuse and the second
concerns the option for women to access their superannuation early (that is, prior to
retirement) when they may need money on leaving an abusive relationship.
41