Australia's Domestic Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin to address National Press Club

West Australian

2 days ago

Australia's Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner Micaela Cronin will address the National Press Club alongside Australian Law Reform Commission president Justice Mordy Bromberg on Wednesday.
The pair are expected to discuss a 12 month inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence which was tabled earlier this year and found justice systems have failed victim-survivors.
It made 64 recommendations to improve their experiences and outcomes, including providing independent legal advisers or justice system 'navigators', creating safe places to disclose, and addressing barriers to engage with justice.
During the Inquiry, the commission received 220 submissions from individuals and organisations, and undertook 126 consultations, involving more than 384 consultees.
'The justice system has a critical role to play in ending this harm by providing people who have experienced sexual violence with a safe, informed, and supported way of accessing justice; and by holding perpetrators of sexual violence to account,' Justice Bromberg said.
Ms Cronin added: 'We must also recognise that rates of sexual violence are getting worse, and our response is not improving fast enough – it is one of the most harmful, under reported, and under prosecuted crimes'.
'Our shared goal under the National Plan is, and should be, to end domestic, family and sexual violence in one generation.
'This report helps us on that path, now we must act.'
Their address comes after a report into men's violence against women released on Tuesday found mental ill health and poor father-son relationships are key factors that could contribute to the issue.
The damning new research, which has surveyed more than 16,000 boys and men since 2013, found more than one third of Australian men admitted they've either scared or intimidated their own loved ones.
Ms Cronin described that study as a 'world first' which provided important insight into the prevalence of intimate partner violence from the perspective of men's use.
'It's very important that we've got this longitudinal study. It also gives us some really good insights into where we should be looking to support,' she told ABC on Tuesday.
'I'm really hoping that this research will help to inform evidence-based, interventions that will reduce violence, that will help work and focus on what it is that we can do to stop domestic family and sexual violence.
'We need to understand, intervene and prevent men's use of violence because we know that 93 percent of the perpetrators of violence are men and boys.
'We need to be talking about men and boys and how we can support them. Are we at critical times in their lives when they're struggling? Where are all of the intervention points?'
Ms Cronin added the study also showed the cost of delayed action: 'What we've seen in this study is an increase in prevalence in the period in the 10 years since it was first conducted'.
'Every next incidence (of violence) in which we haven't acted to protect has lifelong, often harmful impacts on the community and individuals,' she said.