No hiding assets to not pay compensation

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

20 January 2023

A consultation paper has been released by Treasury to prohibit convicted child sex abusers from hiding their assets in superannuation to avoid paying compensation to their victims.

The paper aims to “close a loophole” long taken advantage of by offenders that has denied victims their court-awarded compensation, with two proposals set to outline the process of releasing offenders’ superannuation to pay outstanding compensation orders.

This comes after years of campaigning and lobbying conducted by child abuse survivors and advocacy organisations.

The proposals seek to make super contributions made by an offender in the time up to criminal proceedings would be made available for the purposes of paying owed compensation to the victim.

“Courts would also be entitled to access Australian Taxation Office data about offenders’ superannuation accounts, giving transparency to victims of their assets,” Treasury’s announcement said today.

“Together, these changes will leave offenders no place to hide their assets and no way of avoiding compensating their victims.

We will now consult on these proposals with a view to introducing legislation into the parliament as a matter of priority. Consultation closes on Thursday 16 February, 2023.”