Five years after her former partner left her with tax and other debts worth more than $12 million, Christine, whose name has been changed to protect her safety, is still trying to clear her name.
The physical abuse started when she entered the relationship.
But in 2021, after she had left the marriage, creditors threatened to seize Christine's home as they pursued her for $186,000 in alleged debts.
"I didn't know what I was served the bankruptcy notice for."
Christine soon realised that the debts were largely because her former partner had made her a company director of a business that she did not have any part in running. He also took out hefty loans under Christine's name without her knowledge.
By the time Christine unravelled the extent of her financial abuse, the separated mother of two realised she owed millions to banks, credit agencies and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
She is still trying to clear the debts.
"I couldn't believe it [that] someone can do something like that. Knowing it's your husband," she said, breaking down in tears.
"We had a family. Did you [he] think about the kids? What was going to happen to us?
"You know you've done nothing wrong, and you've been prosecuted for something you didn't do."
Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino is unveiling a suite of changes aimed at closing the opportunities for financial abuse.
Perpetrators of domestic violence would be punished rather than rewarded for their actions when committing abuse against their former partners by racking up tax and other debts in their name.
Financial and economic abuse is estimated to cost the economy almost $11 billion a year and affects more than 2.4 million Australians, according to research conducted by Deloitte, commissioned by CBA and published by Treasury.
Mr Mulino has been considering 61 recommendations made by a parliamentary inquiry into financial abuse.
He said to prevent financial abuse from happening, he wanted to put a greater onus on all financial services providers, including banks, other credit lenders, insurance companies and superannuation funds.
The inquiry recommended various consumer codes of practice be amended to include specific reference to financial abuse under "vulnerable customers", and for lenders to develop systems to proactively contact customers who may be experiencing financial abuse.
"That can manifest itself through stronger codes of practice for different areas, but it can also just be companies making sure that they design products more safely," Mr Mulino said.
"For example, bank accounts or insurance products have safety mechanisms where one … party to the product, can't do things to the disadvantage of the other party, particularly where the bank or the insurer or the superannuation company has reason to suspect that there might be abuse being undertaken."
Mr Mulino said perpetrators needed to face tougher penalties if they coerced someone into being a company director to rack up tax debts in their name.
Mr Mulino said he was considering changes that would stop perpetrators from being able to access a spouse's death benefits in cases where the spouse suffered financial abuse or committed suicide because of the abuse.
The inquiry into financial abuse suggested that the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 be amended so that a beneficiary who had perpetrated domestic or family abuse against the superannuation account holder "can be declared an invalid".
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) would also be given powers to stop illegal withdrawals of super from self-managed super funds (SMSFs).
Perpetrators often set up a joint SMSF, clear money out of the fund illegally, and then leave the victim facing hefty penalties and risk of imprisonment after the money is gone.
Because perpetrators know the government is tightening controls around abuse committed through company directorship structures, abuse through self-managed super funds remains a "blind spot".
That is according to Jasmine Opdam, who works with the Redfern Legal Centre's Financial Abuse Service, a free legal service which assists victim survivors of financial abuse.
The illegal access could happen with SMSFs because the money is often held in a bank account which is easy to withdraw from, unlike APRA-regulated funds, where a person cannot access their superannuation as easily.
Ms Opdam said while there was no national data on the prevalence of financial abuse specifically within the self-managed super system, "we do know from ATO data from a few years ago that up to $250 million a year is being illegally accessed early from self-managed superannuation funds".
Mr Mulino said he wanted to give powers to the ATO to stop perpetrators of abuse accessing a victim's super in cases of suspected abuse.
In August, Mr Mulino unveiled a suite of changes at the National Press Club which included giving the ATO to power to stop rollovers in cases of suspected fraud.
"We'll then undertake detailed consultation on what those rollover powers look like specifically."
Consumer advocates want the government to compel super funds to proactively contact their customers when they are transferring their entire balance into an SMSF.
"This is very similar to how a bank might call a customer if there is a suspicious transaction," said Lily Jiang, director of advocacy at Super Consumers Australia.
Ms Jiang also wanted to see professionals such as financial advisers, accountants, and lawyers who often helped perpetrators set up an SMSF and facilitate illegal withdrawals held to account.
"Require them to set some professional standards to make sure that we don't have professionals either knowingly or unknowingly facilitating financial abuse through SMSFs," she said.
While the government's proposed changes to company directorships will go some way to helping victims, they do not account for debts created through other structures such as fraudulent tax returns, GST fraud and SMSFs, according to financial counsellor Julie Dal Pra.
Ms Dal Pra, who works at non-profit community group Each, said she wanted the law to be changed to waive tax debts entirely in cases of financial abuse.
"Right now, we can't resolve financial abuse through the tax system," she said.
Ann Kayis-Kumar, the founding director of UNSW's tax and business advisory clinic, also said she wanted the government to waive ATO debts in cases of financial abuse, and said that should include abuse through self-managed super funds.
She said that in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had legal provisions that recognised victims of domestic violence as being deserving of special protection.
"It's devastating. Not only do they realise that all of their superannuation has been taken away without their knowledge … but also then have the system effectively weaponised against them and risking fines of $16,000 to $82,000 and even imprisonment on top of it," she said.
Mr Mulino said he was considering how penalties for tax debts could be waived.
All the financial counsellors ABC News spoke to also called for greater funding for specialist support services, which Mr Mulino said he was considering.
As Christine fights to clear the debts in the name, she hopes that federal authorities dealing with victims of abuse take a different approach — not just in recognising and waiving debts, but in terms of how they treat victim survivors.
