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The federal government has appointed a former social worker with experience leading homelessness and human rights organisations as Australia's first Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner after dumping the Coalition's pick earlier this year.
Key points:
- Ms Cronin will act as an advocate for victim-survivors and will be responsible for reviewing progress of the national plan
- She was previously the President of Australian Council of Social Services
- In June, Labor dumped Catherine Fitzpatrick a day before she was due start as commissioner
Micaela Cronin will begin at the newly established commission next week and will be responsible for tracking the implementation of the new national plan to end violence against women and children within "one generation" unveiled earlier this month.
Her appointment comes as frontline crisis services express their disappointment with the level of funding allocated towards women's safety in Labor's budget.
As commissioner, Ms Cronin will act as an advocate for victim-survivors and will be responsible for reviewing the progress of the national plan and reporting back to parliament.
She says she will take her responsibility for the delivery of the plan "very seriously".
"I am deeply committed to addressing and ending violence against women and children in all its forms, and am looking forward to the contribution I will make as Commissioner," Ms Cronin said.
"The new National Plan is an ambitious blueprint, but it is a truly national document with collaboration from all jurisdictions and stakeholders."
Ms Cronin has most recently been the Director of RMIT's Workforce Innovation and Development Institute, and was previously the President of Australian Council of Social Services, an executive officer at the St Vincent de Paul Society and CEO at Hagar International, which works with survivors of human trafficking across South East Asia and Afghanistan.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said Ms Cronin's vast experience with a range of not-for-profit organisations makes her well-suited for the role.
"Ms Cronin brings significant leadership and governance experience from across the non-profit sector, which will be incredibly valuable in her role as Commissioner," Ms Rishworth said.
"The Commissioner is central to the oversight of the National Plan and will be a key advocate for victim-survivors."
"The Commissioner will work across states and territories to help coordinate key national safety and service frameworks."
In June, Labor dumped Catherine Fitzpatrick a day before she was due start as commissioner, arguing she was appointed to the job by the Coalition without an open or competitive recruitment process.
Ms Fitzpatrick has experience in the corporate and banking sector including as Director of Customer Vulnerability and Financial Resilience at Westpac and has also held government advisory roles on women safety.
While dropped as commissioner, Ms Fitzpatrick will continue to provide advice on financial abuse as a member of the Commonwealth's National Plan Advisory Group.
More than $27 million has been allocated over five years for the operation of the new commission.
The funding forms part of a $1.7 billion dollar allocation over six years to address violence against women and children included in this week's budget.
Promise to end violence 'not realistic' without more funding
Chief Executive of Full Stop Australia Hayley Foster said without a larger investment, the government would not be able to fulfil its ambitious pledge of ending violence in "one generation".
"I am afraid to say, if we don't increase that investment urgently in a real time sensitive way, it's just not going to be a realistic goal," Ms Foster said.
She said the national plan which was adopted by all states and territories and will guide government action over the next decade needs "serious resourcing".
"We had called for $1 billion per annum just to fill some of those critical shortfalls and gaps in the service system that mean many people can't access the safety and support they need," she said.
"We need to front load that investment, we can't just, keep tapering it up really ever so slowly, which is what we're seeing with the funding at the moment from a very low base."
The comments were echoed by Greens Senator Larissa Waters who said the budget was "incredibly underwhelming" for women.
"After 9 years of inaction under the Coalition, it was a low bar to clear, but redirecting existing funds and dangling the promise of better things in the future just isn't going to cut it when it comes to women's safety and economic security," she said.
"The new National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children was released last week with great fanfare and laudable goals, but ambitious aims need to be backed with funding."
"The women's safety sector has repeatedly called for a $1 billion per year to ensure funding meets demand and yet the government's budget response was to re-badge and re-shuffle previous funding commitments, adding only partial indexation and a fraction of the workers needed."