‘Fatal consequences’: Social entrepreneur brings financial abuse battle to Perth
Catherine Fitzpatrick has taken on institutions from banks to insurers in a bid to eradicate the financial abuse she says lies at the root of a staggering number of domestic violence situations.
Now, as the nation reels from fresh horrors under this label, the social entrepreneur is taking on the utilities.
Catherine Fitzpatrick, founder of social enterprise Flequity Ventures.Credit:
On Thursday, Fitzpatrick announced 21 businesses, including telecommunications giant Optus, insurer IAG and 16 Australian banks, had vowed to formally include financial abuse considerations and consequences into their terms and conditions.
The move is part of a new “respect and protect” initiative, spearheaded by Fitzpatrick’s social enterprise Flequity Ventures.
But the battle is no small one.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Personal Safety Survey shows about 2.4 million Australians have experienced economic abuse at the hands of a partner, equating to about one in every six women and one-in-13 men.
That abuse costs Australians $5.7 billion annually — more than the amount lost to scams in 2023.
Earlier this month, Fitzpatrick travelled to Perth to brief delegates about how the abuse was happening.
Fitzpatrick told the Financial Counselling Australia conference it was the commonly used “joint account”, and services where users could access account details online, that were ripe for financial abuse and the digital revolution was only making things worse.
“In banking, credit cards can be opened online pretty easily without the consent or knowledge of a victim-survivor, so they’re starting to incur debt in their name that they didn’t know about,” she said.
“In 2019, I was involved in identifying that people were using bank messages to send threats and harassment and intimidation.
“A joint account could be cleaned out of all the cash, so that the victim survivor can’t get access to it, or mortgage repayments are not made, so that the victim survivor is then falling into arrears.
“In insurance, what we see is perpetrators may close or change an insurance policy without the knowledge or consent of a victim-survivor, and they find out that they’re not insured where they thought they were.
“But the impact of it in a domestic violence situation means that, in effect, the victim survivor has been penalised for the actions of a perpetrator because they can’t claim where that exclusion exists.”
For Fitzpatrick, it was a tragic meeting with a victim-survivor whose ex-partner had killed their two children in the mid-1990s during her time as a police reporter at a WA newspaper that first opened her eyes to the horrors of domestic abuse.
When she was appointed Commonwealth Bank’s general manager of government, industry and international affairs, Fitzpatrick said it was decided something had to be done.
The Australian Banking Association had developed a guide for banks to address financial abuse after a Royal Commission uncovered victim-survivors being denied access to hardship arrangements, and the long-term impact on the credit reports of those with debts racked up in their name.
But Fitzpatrick took it one step further.
While working with the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety she authored the first ‘Designed to Disrupt’ report in 2022, calling for the banking sector to disrupt domestic violence in Australia.
Victoria’s Essential Services Commission has now engaged Fitzpatrick to interview victim-survivors to better understand how the products and services of energy and water companies may be weaponised, with the aim of redesigning them.
“We still think of domestic violence as a crime of passion, but actually, when you’ve got someone deliberately withholding money or deliberately, fraudulently obtaining credit in your name, that is absolutely a financial crime.”
Fitzpatrick — who advises the federal government as the only business representative appointed to the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children Advisory Group — is now imploring utility regulators and businesses nationwide to do the same.
“We’ve seen complaints to the energy and water ombudsman in Victoria around energy companies that have sent personal details of a victim-survivor to the perpetrator,” she said.
“[We need to] send a strong message to perpetrators.”
Fitzpatrick said she believed there should be a positive duty for organisations to understand and prevent the weaponisation of their products for financial abuse in the same way there was to prevent sexual harassment.
She is also adamant financial abuse should be considered a financial crime.
“At the moment, if you talk about if you go to a bank or an insurer or your superannuation company and say ‘I’m experiencing domestic and financial abuse’, you may or may not be sent to the hardship team, who will say ‘we’ll help you as much as possible, but you’ve still got a debt you need to repay’,” she said.
“What they don’t do is say that you’re a victim of crime.
“We still think of domestic violence as a crime of passion, but actually, when you’ve got someone deliberately withholding money or deliberately, fraudulently obtaining credit in your name, that is absolutely a financial crime.”
If you or someone you know is at risk, contact Safe Steps 1800 015 188; National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732); or Lifeline 131 114.
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