Content note: this episode discusses domestic and family violence, including financial abuse, as well as the family law system and housing insecurity, and briefly mentions suicide.

When the money from a family home is tied up in a legal process, a woman can be asset rich on paper and still have nothing for a rental bond.

Mandy and Heidi talk with Briony, a mum and small business owner who left a relationship marked by family violence. She describes the legal, financial and housing systems running side by side without ever connecting, and having to tell her story again and again to services that didn't talk to each other.

Briony also shares how she moved through shame to rebuild, and what she'd change: housing as a basic right, capped legal fees, earlier access to funds from asset sales, and one person to guide women through it all.

Because of family law restrictions, we don't discuss court proceedings or share anything that could identify the people involved.

Mentioned: Global Sisters Grace campaign.

Need support? In immediate danger, call 000. 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732 (24/7). Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24/7).

Content note: this episode discusses domestic and family violence, including coercive control and financial abuse, as well as housing insecurity and serious illness.

When the rent depends on Centrelink and child support, a late payment or a small pay rise can be the difference between staying housed and falling behind.

Mandy and Heidi talk with Vanessa, a single mum who has raised her two daughters largely on her own for more than a decade. She left a relationship marked by financial control, built a career from scratch and came through cancer. She says the hardest part has been dealing with the systems that are supposed to help: hours on hold, support that disappears after a small pay rise, and child support letters that reveal her income to her ex.

Vanessa also shares what kept her going, and her ideas for a better safety net: connected systems, tiered support, plain-English guidance and community “credit” schemes.

Mentioned: Global Sisters Grace campaign.

Need support? In immediate danger, call 000. 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732 (24/7). Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24/7).

• (00:00:00) - Content warning and introduction
• (00:00:38) - About Locked Out and the series theme
• (00:02:04) - Meet Vanessa: career, cancer, and single parenthood
• (00:02:53) - Leaving a controlling relationship and early struggles
• (00:05:18) - Cancer diagnosis as a financial turning point
• (00:07:56) - Reflecting on leaving and financial literacy gaps
• (00:11:14) - Child support system failures and accountability
• (00:12:56) - The administrative burden and privacy issues
• (00:16:22) - Being penalised for earning more
• (00:17:58) - Selling herself to secure a rental
• (00:20:31) - What should change for women leaving with no money
• (00:23:45) - Experience with affordable housing and makeshift solutions
• (00:26:27) - Advice for women in similar situations
• (00:30:10) - The career and life not lived
• (00:34:35) - Designing a better safety net system
• (00:40:42) - Closing thoughts and sources of hope

Content note: this episode discusses domestic and family violence, homelessness and serious illness.

Leaving is only the first step. In our first episode, Mandy Richards and Heidi Albertiri talk with Diana, a lived experience advocate who fled a violent marriage with her kids and only the clothes they were wearing. With no access to government support, they slept in a car while her son finished Year 12.

Diana shares what came next: debt, years of court, crisis accommodation that wasn't there, and a rental market that kept pushing her out. She also talks about what real accountability could look like, and what owning a home through Global Sisters' Little Green Houses pilot would mean to her.

Mentioned: Little Green Houses | Global Sisters Grace campaign

Need support? In immediate danger, call 000. National domestic, family and sexual violence line, 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732 (24/7). Safe Steps (Vic): 1800 015 188 (24/7). Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24/7).

• (00:00:00) - Content warning and podcast introduction
• (00:01:59) - Introducing Diana and her story
• (00:03:05) - Growing up in New Zealand and meeting her husband
• (00:04:35) - Abuse begins and forced move to Australia
• (00:06:27) - Understanding why she couldn't fight the move
• (00:08:51) - Isolation as a non-citizen and the 18-year plan
• (00:10:33) - Living day to day under coercive control
• (00:14:11) - Warning signs of abuse for others to recognize
• (00:16:28) - The night they fled - son's life threatened
• (00:21:18) - Fleeing with nothing and reaching the police
• (00:24:13) - Homelessness, debt, and navigating broken systems
• (00:29:23) - What a trauma-informed pathway should look like
• (00:33:36) - Holding perpetrators accountable
• (00:36:46) - Representing herself in court for $80,000
• (00:39:03) - The scale of financial inequity in the settlement
• (00:42:33) - Why women stay, and the housing crisis backdrop
• (00:45:25) - Gender inequality and rising homelessness over 55
• (00:47:28) - Reconciling the past and Diana's advocacy work today
• (00:50:21) - Global Sisters, Sister Chats, and finding community
• (00:54:35) - The reality of crisis accommodation in Australia
• (00:57:54) - Why crisis accommodation shouldn't exist at all
• (00:59:10) - Little Greenhouses: a home ownership pilot for women
• (01:01:14) - A perpetrator register and accountability solutions
• (01:07:09) - What owning a home would mean to Diana
• (01:10:18) - Years of rental instability for Diana and her daughter
• (01:14:28) - Losing her pottery business to housing instability
• (01:15:51) - Advice for women listening who feel trapped
• (01:18:11) - Closing thoughts and message of hope