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Articles by Kay Cook
Quantifying the Sites of Government, Commercial, and Personal Systems-Perpetrated Financial Abuse
1 Introduction Economic violence, including economic and financial abuse, affects 1.5 million Australian women (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2023), with a cost to the economy of over $10 billion annually (Deloitte Access Economics 2022).
Mapping Intimate Partner Financial Abuse Across Public and Private Systems
1 Introduction Financial abuse is an insidious, yet common (DSS 2022), form of gendered violence that is enacted via routine administrative practices (Sharp-Jeffs 2021), such as through the structure of business arrangements (Chen 2024), or post-separation parenting arrangements where perpetrators may choose to not lodge or delay tax returns to deliberately manipulate the amount of child support a resident parent will receive (Women's Legal Services Australia (WLSA) 2024).
‘Unfair and unreasonable’ - report finds $1.9 billion in unpaid child support in system rife with financial abuse
The Commonwealth ombudsman has released his long-awaited report into the “weaponisation” of the child support program. He has identified widespread financial abuse throughout the system. This includes parents not making payments, lying to reduce their income and being abusive or violent to stop ex-partners seeking help. The ombudsman has found Services Australia, which administers the scheme, is not using its available powers to stop the abuse and force ex-partners to support their children.
‘Unfair and unreasonable’ - report finds $1.9 billion in unpaid child support in system rife with financial abuse
The Commonwealth ombudsman has released his long-awaited report into the “weaponisation” of the child support program. He has identified widespread financial abuse throughout the system. This includes parents not making payments, lying to reduce their income and being abusive or violent to stop ex-partners seeking help. The ombudsman has found Services Australia, which administers the scheme, is not using its available powers to stop the abuse and force ex-partners to support their children.
In this era of extreme weather, how to work with communities on response and recovery
Introduction by Croakey: As the World Meteorological Organization’s latest State of the Global Climate report makes clear, we need to get much better at preparing for and responding to flooding and other extreme weather events. This will require governments to work more respectfully and effectively with local communities, write Professor Kay Cook, Dr Adrienne Byrt and David Tennant, who report below on the aftermath of flooding in regional Victoria in 2022.
Full article: Antifeminist, manosphere and right-wing extremist sentiment among men who use domestic and family violence: masculinism, misinformation, and the justificatory logics of violence
ABSTRACT This paper charts the accounts of front-line workers in ‘Australia’ who work with men who use Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) on the extent, nature, and context of antifeminist and / or right-wing extremist (RWE) sentiment among their clients, and its overlap with ‘manosphere’ content and sentiment. It has previously been established that lone-actor terrorism and right-wing extremism that manifests in acts of public violence, have deep connections to male supremacy and the manosphere.
Australia’s child support system can put single mothers at risk of poverty and financial abuse
Australia’s child support system can not only increase women’s poverty, but can actually facilitate financial abuse, according to our recent research. Child support is an important system that aims to share the financial burden of raising children between separated parents. But there are some serious problems with the way it operates, putting already vulnerable women further at risk.
Australia’s child support system can put single mothers at risk of poverty and financial abuse
By Kay Cook, Adrienne Byrt, Ashlea Coen and Marg Rogers Australia’s child support system can not only increase women’s poverty, but can actually facilitate financial abuse, according to our recent research. Child support is an important system that aims to share the financial burden of raising children between separated parents. But there are some serious problems with the way it operates, putting already vulnerable women further at risk.
Australia’s child support system can put single mothers at risk of poverty and financial abuse
Australia’s child support system can not only increase women’s poverty, but can actually facilitate financial abuse, according to our recent research. Child support is an important system that aims to share the financial burden of raising children between separated parents. But there are some serious problems with the way it operates, putting already vulnerable women further at risk.
Australia’s child support system can put single mothers at risk of poverty and financial abuse
Australia’s child support system can not only increase women’s poverty, but can actually facilitate financial abuse, according to our recent research[1]. Child support[2] is an important system[3] that aims to share the financial burden of raising children between separated parents. But there are some serious problems with the way it operates, putting already vulnerable women further at risk.
The Re-Emergence of Childcare as a Women’s Issue? Analyzing Gender in Australian and Canadian COVID-19 Childcare Policymaking
Discussion The Canadian and Australian policy responses provide insight into whether the pandemic provided new discursive possibilities for gender-equitable ECEC policy. While media headlines suggested the pandemic has undone “decades of progress for women” (Flannery, Citation2020 2020. “The Economic Fallout of COVID-19 Threatens Decades of Progress for Working Women.” Toronto, ON: MaRS. Last Modified August 26.
Financial abuse: the weaponisation of child support in Australia
Description This report draws on post-separation lived experience to demonstrate the ways that the Australian Child Support Scheme can be used and abused to jeopardise the financial safety of recipient parents and their children. This abuse primarily affects women, who continue to carry the burden of unpaid care work in Australia (and internationally) and are overrepresented as victim-survivors of family violence.
Housing policy and non-commercial shared housing in the private rental sector: a scoping review
Study selection We undertook an advanced search in Scopus and Web of Science core, using the following search terms, looking in the title, abstract or keywords: ‘shar* hous*’, ‘shar* renting’, ‘co-rent*’, ‘shar* accommodation’, ‘shar* tenan*’, ‘co-tenan*’, ‘joint tenan*’, ‘shar* occupancy’, ‘house shar*’, ‘housemate’, ‘roommate’, ‘flatmate’. The date limit was 20 May 2021 and the two databases combined yielded 3,131 results.
Podcast: Women and the social security system
On this episode of Policy Forum Pod, Elise Klein from The Australian National University and Kay Cook from Swinburne University join us to discuss how to improve Australia’s social security system, especially how it serves women. Is Australia’s social security system serving women in the way it should be? How is care valued within the system? And what policy responses are needed to ensure it’s improving people’s lives rather than doing harm?
Administrative Burden Symposium: Introduction - Are we ‘administering inequality’ through our welfare systems?
INVITED EDITORIAL Gemma Carey, Corresponding Author gemma.carey@unsw.edu.au orcid.org/0000-0001-7698-9044 Centre for Social Impact, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Correspondence Gemma Carey, Centre for Social Impact, UNSW Sydney, 704, Level 7, Science Engineering Building (E8), Sydney NSW 2052, Australia.
Poverty by Design: How Single Mothers’ Benefits Are Reduced Without Them Knowing
Separated-mother-headed families have the highest rates of poverty of any Australian family type, with 37 per cent living below the poverty line. In these families, every dollar counts, every week. Income shortfalls or unexpected costs can plunge household budgets into chaos from which it is difficult to recover.
Higher Stroke Risk Among Younger Black Adults
By American Heart Association News HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, March 29, 2021 (American Heart Association News) — Black young adults are almost four times more likely than their white counterparts to have a stroke, according to new research. Yet regardless of race, the risk of having a stroke at a younger age increased as blood pressure rose. High blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke. It adds to the heart’s workload and over time damages arteries and organs.
Social security and time use during COVID-19
Description The base rates of Australia’s working-age social security payments are below the poverty line, and have been for some time. Additionally, people who receive payments are often required to undertake various ‘mutual obligations’ such as 'Work for the Dole.' In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Government introduced a $550 per fortnight Coronavirus Supplement (‘the Supplement’) from 27 April 2020 for a period of six months and temporarily suspended mutual obligations.
What happens when you free unemployed Australians from 'mutual obligations' and boost their benefits? We just found out
During COVID-19 the government ran what turned out to be a giant real-world experiment into what happens when you boost someone’s unemployment benefits and free them of the “mutual obligation” to apply for jobs. On April 27 2020 the government as good as doubled the $565.70 per fortnight JobSeeker payment, lifting it by $550 per fortnight for what turned out to be six months. In September the boost dropped to $250 per fortnight, and in December to $150 per fortnight.
State tactics of welfare benefit minimisation: The power of governing documents
Introduction This article examines the material expression of the welfare state as enacted by official forms, information and instructions. Administrative tools such as these enable the state to pursue its interests, but simultaneously revealed how social inequities, such as the feminisation of poverty in this case, are accomplished and entrenched.
Mapping right-wing extremism in Victoria
There has been growing concern about the rise of the far-right in Australia, notably by ASIO in its recent annual reports. While the focus of violent extremism has overwhelmingly been Islamist terrorism and radicalisation, there is a need to widen the scope of what counts as ‘violent extremism’ in an era of alt-right and populist impulses, which largely hark back to ideas of national chauvinism and retuning society to traditional ideas of ‘order’, both publicly and privately.
Measuring Australia's digital divide: the Australian digital inclusion index 2018
Description With a growing range of education, information, government, and community services moving online, internet access is increasingly regarded as an essential service. The benefits of the digital economy cannot be shared equally when some members of the community are still facing real barriers to online participation.
What would another review of child support achieve? We know the problems, and how to fix them
The Australian National Audit Office recently listed child support program arrangements between the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Department of Human Services as a priority issue. This comes as the One Nation party calls for a review of child support. While the ATO changes were flagged in the 2015 parliamentary inquiry into the child support program, the two announcements have been linked.
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