Australia’s first National Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner
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The woman behind the banking industry’s recent crackdown on financial and gender-based abuse, Catherine Fitzpatrick, will be Australia’s first National Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence (DFSV) Commissioner.
Catherine, who spent several years in Canberra as a ministerial advisor, has 30 years of experience across private, public and not-for-profit sectors, including as the Director of Customer Vulnerability and Financial Resilience at Westpac and Chair of the National Women’s Safety Alliance Policy and Advocacy Advisory Committee.
While at the Commonwealth Bank, Catherine identified and led the banking industry’s response to abuse in payment descriptions, an issue which many other banks have since sought to address. She is also a member of the National Plan Advisory Group and NSW Attorney-General’s Domestic and Family Violence and Sexual Assault Corporate Leadership Group.
The Federal Government has committed $22.4 million over five years to establish the National DFSV Commission as recommended by the House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs Inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence.
In announcing the appointment today, Minister for Women’s Safety Anne Ruston, said Commission was supporting cooperation, accountability, transparency and evidence-based action “as we work towards a future free from gender-based violence in Australia”.
In a 5-year appointment Catherine will lead the Commission to implement the next National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children and support the Government in providing policy leadership, developing and fostering relationships across the sector and ensuring greater cooperation between the Commonwealth, states and territories in delivering the targets and objectives of the next National Plan.
Catherine said the position was an honour, and “an opportunity to galvanise the efforts of government, community and business – because we all have a role to play”.
“My first priority will be to listen to victim-survivors, because we owe it to them and every other person whose life has been affected,” she said.
“The ongoing injury and death toll is a sobering reminder of how much more there is to do and the urgency with which I intend to tackle it.”
Her appointment will take effect from July 1.
For further information on the National DFSV Commission, which has been established as an Executive Agency under the Public Service Act 1999, you can go here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2022G00246.
