SYDNEY, NSW — Specialty risk advice firm Sapience Financial has lodged a formal submission with the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, urging the government to expand its coercive control laws to protect adult children from systemic financial slavery inside the family home.

The submission, targeting the 2026 Statutory Review of the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Coercive Control) Act 2022, warns of a critical legislative blind spot. While current NSW law criminalises economic abuse between intimate partners, it offers zero protection to adult children whose income and identity documents are controlled by dominant parents. Sapience Financial urges NSW to follow the precedent set by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which expanded coercive control to cover broader family relationships.

"Every day as risk advisors, we see high-earning young professionals functioning as financial slaves to their families. Their wages are intercepted and their financial literacy is intentionally withheld under the polite guise of 'tradition.' It is not culture; it is covert coercive control."

— Drew Browne, CEO & Senior Financial Adviser, Sapience Financial

The submission cites landmark Federal Court modern slavery precedents—including Danaratna v Arunatilaka [2024] FCA 918 and R v Kannan [2021] VSC 442 - pointing out that while Australian courts prosecute passport seizure, wage interception, and relational confinement when committed by an employer, state laws currently treat identical behaviour by parents as a private family matter.

Sapience Financial’s submission calls on the NSW Government to expand the statutory definition of domestic relationships and close the Succession Act 2006 loophole before consultations close on 28 August 2026.

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