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and for the creation of a new temporary visa for partners of temporary visa holders or ‘secondary’ visa holders who experience violence to enable them to access services and make arrangements to return to their country of origin or to apply for another visa (ALRC 2011c, p. 46). The ALRC (2011c) report also recommended that the Minister issue a direction to strengthen Australia’s response to people seeking protection in Australia as refugees on the basis of their experience of family violence. Other recommendation were: for a review of Migration Review Tribunal application fees—including on their impact on victims of family violence; for improved education and training on family violence issues for migration services providers; and for the provision of family violence information to visa applicants (ALRC 2011c). Anti-discrimination law While there is currently no protection for victims of family and domestic violence under Australian anti-discrimination laws community views on this have recently been sought in a public discussion paper on the consolidation of the various Commonwealth antidiscrimination laws (Attorney-General’s Department, 2011). The particular areas of concern identified in the discussion paper are in relation to discrimination in housing and employment. Submissions to the process closed in February 2012 and draft legislation is expected to be released for comment some time in 2012. 11 Consumer protection regulation Following economic abuse women may have to manage banking, loans, consumer credit, bills and debts to stop the continuation of abuse, to disentangle their finances and to establish manageable ongoing financial arrangements. They may be dealing with these issues while also in circumstances of hardship and in some cases having had little experience of managing finances. Immediate issues may be to do with being left with debts, being on a low income, needing to separate finances, having poor access to credit, and having extra costs due to relocation and re-establishment of a household. Women may have to deal with banks and credit providers to sort out joint accounts, apply for loans, re-negotiate repayments and attempt to separate out liabilities. Women may have liability for bills and debts that have been run up by ex-partners but are in their names. For those on low incomes common problems may be with bills and debts for essential services and products such as utilities and telecommunications, while there are potentially a much broader range of bills and debts that women can face as a result of economic abuse. Examples identified in the research literature include ‘acquired debts’, for example, fines due to ex-partners’ traffic or other infringements relating to their use of cars registered in women’s names (for example, speeding and parking fines and road tolls), and bills for household and other items bought through hire purchase or deferred payment arrangements (Braaf & Barrett Meyering 2011; Branigan 2004; Evans 2007; Fraser, Hunter & Borrell 2011). In addition there may be bills or debts relating to purchases or to ongoing commitments which are in both names or in the woman’s name only. There is a range of regulatory arrangements for consumer protection that are relevant to the managements of personal debt, credit, banking and bills. These include broad consumer 11 The discussion paper and information on the consultation can be found at . 44
laws and a variety of other ‘soft’ regulation such as industry codes and individual company policies. Shortcomings in the effectiveness of these arrangements for protecting vulnerable consumers—especially people on low incomes—have been highlighted in various consumer and community sector submissions made during recent reform processes, as outlined below. In relation to women experiencing domestic and family violence identified issues in the research literature include: lack of access to affordable credit; bank fees and charges; lack of readily accessible information about hardship policies; having to explain the experience of domestic violence to financial institutions and service providers; providers’ resistance to splitting bills; requirements to pay reconnection fees; and providers making adverse credit reports while the woman is repaying part of a debt but her ex-partner is not (Arashiro 2011; Braaf & Barrett Meyering 2011). A single national consumer credit regulatory regime came into existence only recently with the introduction of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. The Act includes a National Credit Code that replaced previous state-based consumer credit codes (ASIC 2012, viewed 18 July 2012, ). Subsequently two legislative amendments have been introduced with the purposes of strengthening consumer protections. The first, which took effect in July 2012, is the National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Home Loans and Credit Cards) Act 2011 which increases requirements on lenders to give prospective borrowers information and places some limits on fees and on lenders’ invitations to borrowers to increase their credit limits (Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services [PJCCFS] 2011). The second is the Consumer Credit and Corporations Legislation Amendment (Enhancements) Bill 2011 (the Credit Enhancements Bill) which at time of writing had yet to be passed by the Senate. The Bill contains: provisions to introduce caps on interest charged on short-term ‘payday’ loans, provisions to make it easier to vary loans in response to hardship; new requirements on reverse mortgages; and increased regulation of consumer leases (PJCCFS 2011). Payday loans or same day cash advances may be attractive or seen as the only option for people faced with immediate financial problems and who may be unable to access other credit options; approval is granted quickly and sometimes without credit checks. However, loans generally have high fees and much higher interest than ‘mainstream’ bank and credit union loans making them difficult to repay. In general these sorts of loans have been seen as very harmful with few if any benefits for people on low incomes (Banks 2011). While consumer and community services groups welcomed proposals to address concerns with credit practices, particularly in regard to ‘fringe’ lenders and payday loans (Consumer Action Law Centre 2011), they have viewed the final reform proposals as inadequate, with one consumer advocate describing them as allowing annual interest rates on credit of up to 240 per cent and as ‘fall(ing) far short of effective protection’ (Lowe 2012, viewed 25 July 2012, at ). Other regulations providing protections for consumers in their dealings with financial institutions include industry codes of practice such as the Code of Banking Practice, the Credit Union Code of Practice and the Building Society Code of Practice (ASIC 2012). These are voluntary codes, developed by industry and which individual organisations sign up to (ASIC 2012). While ASIC has oversight industry bodies monitor their members’ compliance with codes. 12 The codes set out broad obligations while individual organisations have their own policies, including in response to customer hardship. Some of these company policies specifically identify relationship or family breakdown as possible reasons for a customer 12 See for example the Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) Code of Banking Practice (ABA 2004) and the industry’s Code Compliance Monitoring Committee, accessed 21 July 2012 at ). 45
Page 2 and 3:
Spotlight on Econo
Page 4 and 5: Contents List of Abbreviations ....
Page 6 and 7: Executive Summary This literature r
Page 8 and 9: legal matters migration matters hea
Page 10 and 11: There is a need for greater support
Page 12 and 13: Overview This paper is organised as
Page 14 and 15: The DV Vic definition informs the u
Page 16 and 17: Case Study: Maria Maria’s husband
Page 18 and 19: Some ‘typical scenarios’ of eco
Page 20 and 21: As part of repeated or ongoing cont
Page 22 and 23: also outside the scope of this pape
Page 24 and 25: Influences, Impacts and Points of I
Page 26 and 27: Particular vulnerabilities to econo
Page 28 and 29: Exploring the impacts of economic a
Page 30 and 31: Impacts relating to child support.
Page 32 and 33: Compared with 1995, people were mor
Page 34 and 35: Public Policies and Practices There
Page 36 and 37: the legal frameworks affecting dome
Page 38 and 39: In addition to family violence poli
Page 40 and 41: Centrelink may seek to recover paym
Page 42 and 43: Services staff providing customer s
Page 44 and 45: perpetrators to be excluded from th
Page 46 and 47: purpose is to “build the capacity
Page 48 and 49: financial literacy strategy. Howeve
Page 50 and 51: or in any other way controls or dom
Page 52 and 53: In its recent review the ALRC ident
Page 56 and 57: equiring assistance or consideratio
Page 58 and 59: establish if there is a need for re
Page 60 and 61: considered by community sector grou
Page 62 and 63: Community Services Policies and Pra
Page 64 and 65: Financial counselling services are
Page 66 and 67: Conclusion: Community services resp
Page 68 and 69: —— 2011, Forms of employment, A
Page 70 and 71: Chappell, D & Di Martino, V 2000, V
Page 72 and 73: se.unsw.edu.au/Conference%20papers/
Page 74 and 75: Northern Territory Government 2008,
Page 76 and 77: VicHealth—see Victorian Health Pr
Page 78 and 79: ALRC (2011c) recommendations for ch
Page 80: GoodShepherd_Cover_print.indd 2 1/1
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