The new domestic, family, and sexual violence commissioner will use her second week in the role to visit Alice Springs and Darwin in the Northern Territory to hear from women and children who have experienced abuse.
Micaela Cronin says she intends to visit each state and territory before the end of the year to engage with victim-survivors, saying their input to the design of solutions to address the "epidemic levels" of gender-based violence in Australia will be crucial.
"You need to listen directly to communities, to hear what their challenges are, and what their priorities are," Ms Cronin told the ABC.
"My number one priority is to really start to listen and engage with communities.
"What works in the Northern Territory will be very different to what works in Metro Sydney."
The Northern Territory has the highest rate of domestic and family violence related homicides in Australia, and Indigenous women are hospitalised at 40 times the rate of non-indigenous women in that jurisdiction.
Ms Cronin acknowledged the need for better information gathering and sharing between states and territories after an ABC investigation this year revealed 315 First Nations women have either gone missing or been murdered or killed in suspicious circumstance in Australia over the last two decades.
"The lack of visibility of what's happening for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women is a critical and shameful gap," she said.
Ms Cronin was appointed as the inaugural commissioner by the Albanese government last month and will be responsible for advocating for victim-survivors and providing policy advice to the federal government about women's safety.
"I've spent my career working to support women and children," she said.
"I started out as a social worker working in a Women's Refuge, I feel very passionate about contributing to the change that we need to see."
Ms Cronin has also been tasked with tracking the progress of a new 10-year national plan released jointly by state and territory governments and the Commonwealth, aimed at ending violence against women and children within "one generation".
To tackle the problem the government has committed $1.7 billion over six years, a figure many advocates say is woefully inadequate.
Ms Cronin said the funding was a "good beginning" and expected that additional money will be needed once the federal government releases further details about the targets and timelines required to meet the ambitious goal of the national plan.
It acknowledges that violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women is "compounded by the ongoing effects of colonisation and racism" and is perpetrated by men of all cultural backgrounds.
"Too often, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are being miss-identified as perpetrators when they seek assistance," the plan states.
"The legal and justice systems are not well adapted or informed to respond effectively to the interlocking and compounding forms of violence Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience."
The Albanese government has committed to developing a standalone plan that specifically addresses the complex and sensitive factors driving violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children.
