Following the National Cabinet meeting on 6 September 2024, the Australian Government commenced an audit of key Commonwealth systems to identify areas where they are being weaponised by perpetrators of family and domestic violence to stamp out opportunities for systems abuse.
Too often, perpetrators of family and domestic violence exploit and manipulate government systems to control, threaten or harass victim-survivors. This systems abuse is often part of a pattern of coercive control and financial abuse that perpetrators use to control or punish their victims.
Work is underway across government to address the findings from the audit, including to identify and implement interventions and system improvements that can protect and support victim-survivors.
Strengthening the child support system against weaponisation
As part of the response to the audit, through the 2026–27 Budget, the Australian Government provided $182.6 million to deliver a series of foundational reforms to address known misuse of the child support system.
These reforms will make the child support system safer and more effective for all families, and will see more child support flow in full and on time to the children who need it. The reforms will better protect single parents from family and domestic violence and economic abuse, and strengthen financial security for women.
Further detail on the reforms can be found on the Department of Social Services website.
Complementing these reforms, Services Australia and the Australian Taxation Office are making operational changes to address financial abuse and support customers experiencing family and domestic violence in the child support and tax systems. This includes implementing all recommendations from the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Weaponising Child Support: When the System Fails Families report and the Tax Ombudsman’s Identification and Management of Financial Abuse within the Tax System report, such as building staff capability to better identify, escalate and manage financial abuse risks.
Services Australia has released its Preventing Financial Abuse through Child Support Strategy and associated action plan, outlining its commitment to reduce and prevent financial abuse through child support.
The Australian Taxation Office has released its Vulnerability Framework, outlining its commitment to support fairer, more compassionate services for taxpayers experiencing vulnerability.
Closing financial abuse loopholes
As an immediate response to the audit, the Australian Government is taking steps to close financial abuse loopholes by:
- preventing perpetrators from using tax and corporate systems to create debts as a form of coercive control and making perpetrators accountable for these debts
- looking at making perpetrators liable for social security debts that a victim-survivor incurs due to coercion or financial abuse
- looking at how to stop perpetrators receiving their victim’s superannuation after death.
The Australian Government is progressing work on all elements of the close financial abuse loopholes commitment.
Treasury has conducted public consultation on options to:
- reduce the prevalence and impact of coerced directorships
- prevent perpetrators from accessing victims’ superannuation death benefits.
Both consultations are closed. Submissions are being considered and will inform policy development.
Complementing this work, the Australian Government has reformed the special circumstances debt waiver, giving Services Australia extended powers from December 2025 to waive social security and family payment debts incurred as a result of family and domestic violence, including through coercion and financial abuse.
Safety by design
Through the audit, the Australian Government is also working to apply the principles of safety by design into systems reform and design, to contribute to preventing systems abuse. Safety by design is a preventative approach where safety considerations are holistically considered in the design and operation of systems to prevent abuse before it occurs. Examples include:
- the Digital Transformation Agency taking action to ensure that Commonwealth departments and agencies embed safety by design when planning and building public-facing digital Australian Government systems
- Services Australia taking steps to stop perpetrators weaponising its products, services and systems, and to enhance supports for victim-survivors of family, domestic and sexual violence
- The Attorney-General’s Department examining options to improve family law cross-examination arrangements to lessen opportunities for perpetrators of family and domestic violence to frustrate and delay family law proceedings.
The Department of Social Services, in consultation with Services Australia, has also completed an internal review of the social security, family payment and child support systems to identify gaps in assistance and areas that perpetrators could exploit to cause harms. In addition, the Department of Social Services has published child support research that supported the 2026–27 Budget reforms. Services Australia has separately conducted an internal safety by design review to understand how perpetrators could, or do weaponise its current products, services and payments against people experiencing family and domestic violence. These reviews are informing action across government to address weaponisation and improve supports for victim-survivors.
To support this work, guidance has been developed for Australian Government departments and agencies to support the implementation of safety by design. It outlines how departments and agencies can identify system vulnerabilities, apply practical design improvements, and strengthen accountability to help prevent systems abuse. It provides a clear, phased approach that departments and agencies can use when reviewing or updating their systems.
Australian Government departments and agencies should contact the Office for Women for detailed guidance.
Ongoing delivery of the audit
The audit is an ongoing mechanism to examine existing government systems to identify:
- areas where they are being weaponised
- how they can be strengthened to improve safety for victim-survivors and prevent further abuse.
It also has a strong focus on how systems can be improved without creating unintended consequences so that they are safe, and work as intended for all Australians.
This work is being informed by targeted stakeholder consultation, including engagement with people with lived experience of this form of abuse, system reform experts, and other key stakeholders to ensure the government understands system vulnerabilities and how they are or may be weaponised. The consultation includes the perspectives and experiences of people who face additional and intersecting barriers when interacting with systems or seeking support, including First Nations people.
The audit is also leveraging findings from existing reviews across government that seek to strengthen systems, and will build on existing research and evidence indicating where systems are being misused.
A Secretaries Working Group on Gender-Based Violence, a sub-committee of the Australian Public Service Secretaries Board is overseeing the audit. The Office for Women in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is supporting the delivery of the audit in close partnership with Australian Government departments and service delivery agencies.
The audit directly responds to recommendation 16 from the Report of the Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches, which called for an immediate audit informed by safety by design principles. It also aligns to Action 5 under the First Action Plan of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032, which includes strengthening systems to better hold perpetrators accountable.
For more information, the Office for Women can be contacted at OFW-EGBVSystemsSafety@pmc.gov.au.