Social support payment systems may be reviewed as DV commissioner warns they are being ‘weaponised’ against women

Domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin has told the National Press Club ‘systems are weaponised to harm people, and all of our systems can be weaponised’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The federal government is considering an across-the-board audit of social support payment systems to identify whether they are putting people at risk, as the commissioner monitoring its national anti-violence plan warns they are being “weaponised” against women.

The domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner, Micaela Cronin, suggested on Wednesday that the government was reviewing all of its payment systems out of concern that they were being used to punish current and former intimate partners.