Federal Government appoints Australia’s first domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner

Australia’s first domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner will start the new role on overseeing a national plan on women’s safety next week after being appointed by the Albanese Government. The Federal Government will on Friday announce RMIT Workforce Innovation and Development Institute director Micaela Cronin as the domestic violence commissioner of the $27.4 million commission over five years, following “an open and competitive recruitment process”. It comes four months after Labor dumped banking executive Catherine Fitzpatrick — a former journalist with The West Australian — from the inaugural position. She has been picked by the Morrison government in April but Labor said it was unaware a recruitment process had been carried out. Ms Cronin, who is one of only three dedicated domestic violence commissioners in the world after the UK and Malta, will start the job on Tuesday and will be responsible for holding governments to account for delivery on the national plan to end violence against women and children within one generation. She is the former Australian Council of Social Services president, St Vincent de Paul Society homelessness services executive officer, and started her career as a crisis counsellor at a women’s refuge referral service. Ms Cronin said she was “very passionate” about prevention, early intervention, response and recovery from gender-based violence. “I have a great deal of experience in trauma informed recovery, and am in the early stages of beginning a PhD in trauma informed and compassionate leadership approaches,” Ms Cronin said. “I am a daughter, a mother, an aunty, a friend and colleague of many women who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing violence and I want to make a difference.” The appointment follows 10 days of paid domestic violence leave now becoming law in Australia, after final amendments to legislation was made in Canberra on Thursday. The entitlement for more than 11 million workers will be available to most employees from February 1, but small businesses will have an extra six months to adjust to the change. ACTU president Michele O’Neil welcomed the new laws, saying it represented a historic win. “It cannot be understated just how important winning paid family and domestic violence leave in the national employment standard is,” she said. “With one in four women having experienced some form of violence since the age of 15 by an intimate partner, Australia has a critical problem with women’s safety and gender equality.” In Australia, one woman a week is killed by a current or former partner, and a third of Australian women experience physical violence by the age of 15. About 65 per cent of assaults recorded in WA in 2020 were related to family and domestic violence, which was up 15 per cent from the previous year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched the women’s Budget statement in Parliament House on Thursday, and said his government had “a big agenda” for gender equality. “We are just getting started,” Mr Albanese said. “All of our Budget items had a gender lens — a gender lens that hasn’t been looked at for the last decade.” The event was attended by Labor MPs and Senators including WA’s Madeleine King, Matt Keogh, Sue Lines, and Fatima Payman, as well as frontbenchers Katy Gallagher, Penny Wong, Richard Marles and Jim Chalmers. The Treasurer earlier in the day said ending domestic and family violence was a top priority for Labor, after domestic violence advocates told The West Australian they were disappointed there was nothing new in this week’s Budget beyond election commitments to back in the national plan. “We all know the scourge of domestic and family violence — that’s why substantial resources are flowing into dealing with it,” Dr Chalmers said. “We’ve made ending domestic and family violence a top priority in the national plan.” 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Men’s Referral Service 1300 766 491