Under the proposal, women who are fleeing from domestic violence will be allowed to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation to help set up their life, away from their abusive partner.
While at first glance the government’s plan to allow victims of domestic abuse access to their superannuation seems to help victims, women advocates believe that it could leave women more vulnerable in the long term.
Minister for Superannuation Jane Hume defended the policy, highlighting that the government would not proceed with the plan if it believed it would put women at risk.
Ms Hume said safeguards would be implemented in the policy to ensure victims were not exploited by their abusers who could try to access the withdrawn funds.
“The regulations that we’ve put together have integrity measures around them,” she told Sky News.
“Getting the balance right between those integrity measures, between allowing women to access their money if they need it, has been really difficult,” she said.
The federal opposition has noted concerns that the government’s plans could trigger financially motivated violence, giving abusers another way of extorting money from their victims.
“[Mr Morrison] would know that many women in abusive relationships have already been violently coerced into handing over their super through his poorly conceived COVID early access to super scheme,” shadow minister for financial services and superannuation Stephen Jones said.
“He would know that women’s superannuation nest eggs already lag far behind men’s.”
“He would know financial security is already the number one barrier to women leaving abusive situations.”
Instead, Labor wants the government to immediately institute paid domestic violence leave to give women and children a safe means to flee abuse and to fund more housing and support for victims.
The ACTU pointed out that victims of domestic violence should not be forced to strip up to $10,000 from their retirement savings in order to fund their own crisis response.
“This is a cruel and discriminatory policy which will further entrench the truly appalling gender gap on super and effectively punish those who have survived family and domestic violence when they retire,” ACTU president Michele O’Neil said.
“The Morrison government should stop outsourcing its responsibility and do its job. It should stop ignoring calls for 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave.”
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