Researchers
Associate Professor Ann Kayis-Kumar, Business School, UNSW
Associate Professor Dr Tracy Wilcox, Business School, UNSW
Professor Michael Walpole, Business School, UNSW
Professor Noel Harding, Business School, UNSW
Scientia Professor Ken Trotman, Business School, UNSW
Dr Greg Richins, Business School, UNSW
Adjunct Professor Kevin O’Rourke OAM, Business School, UNSW
Funding
This project was part of the Australian Human Rights Institute’s 2025 joint seed funding round with the UNSW Business School, receiving $20,000.
Summary
As of 2025, the Australian government does not have any effective policies in place to support women who are victim-survivors of intimate partner financial abuse. While financial abuse is increasingly being recognised in Australia’s domestic violence legislation and scholarly literature, there is limited understanding of the role that professional advisors play in knowingly and/or inadvertently facilitating domestic abuse. Clinical evidence shows that perpetrators often use accountants, lawyers and registered tax agents to obscure business structures and financial decisions, and prolong legal battles that financially drain victim-survivors.
This research project focuses on professional advisors as a critical yet overlooked cohort utilised by perpetrators of domestic violence. Researchers will examine and propose revisions to the current ethical standards guiding behaviour in the accounting and legal professions. Researchers will also produce novel research on intimate partner financial abuse through the identification and quantification of nationwide prevalence and various types of abuse of professionals by perpetrators.
The research team itself integrates expertise in gendered violence, accounting, tax and law to holistically analyse current and proposed professional codes of conduct. Joint funding from the Australian Human Rights Institute and the UNSW Business School will support the creation of a new theoretical framework, in-depth interviews of legal, accounting and tax professionals, and advocacy for awareness and meaningful change necessary to end intimate partner financial abuse. This project will generate world-first empirical evidence on the intersection of financial abuse and professional ethical standards that can be scaled up to address gendered violence internationally.