The Safety by Design partnership has released a discussion paper designed to help the energy and water sectors identify risks and prevent harm for customers experiencing family violence.
The report was commissioned by the Essential Services Commission Victoria as part of a partnership with Thriving Communities Australia, Flequity Ventures, Safe and Equal and the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety.
In 2024, the Essential Services Commission formed a partnership with leaders in family violence and economic abuse prevention to promote the design of safer systems and processes for energy and water businesses that support customers experiencing family violence.
Safety by Design is a framework to anticipate, detect and eliminate harm before it occurs and puts the onus on providers to ensure their products and services are safe.
The resulting paper, Designed to Disrupt: Safety by design for essential services, is part of a series to promote improvement across industries. It draws on the work of experts and the experience of victim-survivors of family violence, to help create a blueprint and better guidance for the energy and water sectors.
The report finds that domestic abusers are exploiting Australia’s utility systems, whereby energy and water accounts are being misused to stalk, control and punish survivors. It warns that inconsistent safeguards across energy and water providers are leaving victim-survivors vulnerable to safety risks.
Report author, social entrepreneur and Adjunct Associate Professor UNSW School of Social Sciences Catherine Fitzpatrick, said, “These aren’t edge cases; these are foreseeable risks. Utilities are essential, but for many women they’ve become another tool of coercion.”
The findings are backed by case studies and data from victim-survivors, financial counsellors, specialist women’s safety services, industry, ombuds and regulators.
“Imagine fleeing a violent partner, only to have your safe new address revealed by your energy or water company. Imagine being chased for years for utilities debt run up in your name. It’s still happening despite regulatory protections,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
“In every sector I have examined – banking, insurance, energy and water – people have raised the alarm about the dangers of privacy breaches. Unless businesses act now to introduce stronger safeguards, they risk being the weak link that puts lives in jeopardy.”
The paper recommends an essential safety by design framework, which aims to prevent the misuse of essential services and be clear on the rules and consequences of misuse. It says energy and water businesses should bring family violence risk into workplace safety culture and reconsider joint and several liability in relation to joint debts.
Other recommendations for industry, government and regulators include:
- Introducing policies, terms and conditions that make it clear that essential services are no place for domestic and financial abuse
- Adopting a shared industry financial abuse customer service standard for energy and water providers – following the lead of AGL and four Victorian water retailers
- Measuring the effectiveness of industry interventions to identify what works to prevent or lessen the harm of financial abuse to victim-survivors
- Ensuring collaboration, data sharing and encouraging consistency across government and regulators
- A national investigation into privacy breaches by utility providers and other Australian businesses to uncover the scale and impact of these potentially fatal errors
- Reform of joint liability rules that leave survivors with debts incurred under duress.
The Essential Services Commission said that this paper will help guide its future work on family violence, and that it takes family violence protections very seriously.
Essential Services Commission Chairperson and Commissioner, Gerard Brody, said, “The Essential Services Commission is pleased to have facilitated this important research paper, which is informed by 12 months of engagement with victim-survivors of family violence, water and energy sectors, community sector, ombuds and regulators.
“Reading the experiences of victim-survivors and how utility accounts are used to exert power, cause fear and hold financial control, provides a stark reminder of why we need to keep focussing on this issue and challenge ourselves to do more.”
M Fitzpatrick said the partnership and the support from the Essential Services Commission afforded her a unique vantage point to compare perpetrator tactics and domestic abuse safety risks across sectors.
“I’m shocked but not surprised by the pervasiveness of financial and tech-facilitated abuse across all sectors of the economy,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
“The opportunity now is for energy and water providers to use this roadmap to extend their workplace safety culture to consider the risks for customers experiencing domestic and financial abuse and to move from compliance to prevention. Victim-survivors deserve nothing less.”
While there is no nationally consistent requirement for data collection and reporting, the report reveals:
- In 2023–24, more than 14,900 energy customers disclosed domestic abuse to three Australian energy retailers
- More than 6820 had overdue debt, and more than 5200 received hardship support
- One energy retailer reported $1.85 million in unpaid bills from affected customers, with the average figure being $1317 and the highest $16,000 \
Thriving Communities Australia CEO, Ciara Sterling, said that this discussion paper plays a vital role in shining a light on the risks and harms that occur when safety isn’t embedded into essential services – and why organisational culture is so critical.
“We continue to see the serious consequences when systems aren’t designed with victim-survivors’ needs at the centre. The commission’s leadership in fostering collaboration across regulators, ombuds, industry and the community sector continues to support a better practice approach to lasting change,” Mr Sterling said
The full Designed to Disrupt: Safety by design for essential services report is available for download at www.flequity.au/designed-to-disrupt/
