Next Government Urged to Honor Pledges to Abuse Survivors

Election commitments from both sides of politics to stamp out the manipulation of financial systems by domestic violence perpetrators, have been supported by Chartered Accountants ANZ (CA ANZ). "Today's announcement by the Coalition shows the Australian community that tackling financial abuse is important to both sides of politics and we'll work with whoever is in government to ensure that any changes that are rolled out deliver the promises being made to victim-survivors and their families," said Ainslie van Onselen, CA ANZ Chief Executive Officer. "We've been educating our members to identify signs of financial abuse because they're in a unique position to recognise when people are being targeted by their intimate partner. "But we can see that more needs to be done to prevent this abuse before it can even start. "We welcome the Coalition's announcement that part of its $90 million domestic and family violence package would include measures to strengthen Commonwealth taxation, welfare and superannuation systems to eradicate financial abuse, coercive control and unfair outcomes. "As we said following the ALP's announcement earlier this week, a proposal to close loopholes in relation to debts incurred through no fault of the victim-survivor and preventing access to a victim's superannuation payout by their perpetrator, would be important steps forward to ending such exploitation.  "CA ANZ has previously provided advice to, and commentary on, government proposals to improve legal frameworks for survivors of domestic violence. "With a bipartisan commitment this week, we look forward to working with the next government to implement changes in this important area."