Financial abuse move now a certainty

Bipartisan support now exists to prevent perpetrators of financial abuse and domestic violence from accessing the victim’s superannuation benefits upon their death after the Coalition pledged to take this action should it win power at the federal election in May.

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Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) has applauded the announcement as it did with last week’s identical commitment by the Albanese government.

“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,” CAANZ chief executive Ainslie van Onselen said.

“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,” she added.

“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,” she reiterated.

Van Onselen confirmed CAANZ is committed to working with the next government to implement the legal changes pertaining to this issue.

Earlier in the week both CAANZ and CPA Australia recognised the critical role accountants can play in preventing financial abuse as they have the ability to detect instances of it during the servicing of their clients.

April 24, 2025
Darin Tyson-Chan
smsmagazine.com.au