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Steve Smith still believes he has room to improve his game at the highest level, even after winning a record-equalling fourth Allan Border Medal,

Smith took out the award for men's cricketer of the year at the Australian Cricket Awards on Monday night. Batter Beth Mooney claimed the Belinda Clark Award as best women's player.

Once 3-2-1 votes from players, umpires and media were tallied, Smith (171 votes) comfortably beat out Travis Head (144) and David Warner (141) to equal Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke for most wins.

The award came as the culmination of Smith's decision to recalibrate his batting technique, an overhaul he began considering as early as 2019.

Smith reaped the rewards during the home Test summer, making an unbeaten 200 against West Indies, his highest Test score in three years. He backed it up with 104 in his home Test at the SCG against South Africa and has averaged 71.92 in Test matches in the past 12 months.

But Smith said he wasn't content to stop there.

"I hope there's more to come," he told reporters.

"That's what I strive for every day, to be the best player that I can be.

"I made some adjustments in the last six months. It took me a while to do, I had to work through a few things.

"It's started to work well for me. Hopefully I can just keep getting better and better."

Mooney polled 129 votes to receive the Belinda Clark Award for the second time.

Meg Lanning finished second in the tally with 110 votes, despite an extended leave of absence, and allrounder Tahlia McGrath placed third with 95.

Averaging 100.75 across 10 ODIs last year, Mooney was a crucial member of Australia's gold medal-winning Commonwealth Games campaign and their triumph at the ODI World Cup campaign, where she was named in the team of the tournament.

Mooney was also named Women's ODI Player Of The Year having posted a career-high 133 in her most recent ODI to help Australia complete a clean sweep of the home series against Pakistan.

Her stellar year came after suffering a nasty nets injury that threw her Ashes and ODI World Cup campaigns into doubt last summer.

Mooney's injury required surgery to insert three metal plates into her face and forced her to adopt a liquid diet but miraculously, she bounced back to play in the Ashes only days later.

"You don't play the game of cricket to win these awards or for personal accolades, you play for team success, and we certainly had a whole bunch of that this year, which was amazing to be a part of," Mooney said.

"Given at the start of (the year), I didn't think I was going to be playing too much after that incident."

As part of the ceremony at Royal Randwick Racecourse, Test revenant Usman Khawaja was named the inaugural Shane Warne Men's Test Player Of The Year for his consistency with the bat locally and abroad.

David Warner was named the Men's ODI Player Of The Year, with Adam Zampa overlooked for nomination despite being selected in the ICC's ODI Team Of The Year. Marcus Stoinis took Men's T20I Player Of The Year

CRICKET AUSTRALIA AWARDS WINNERS:

Belinda Clark Award - Beth Mooney (129 votes)

2nd : Meg Lanning (110)

3rd : Tahlia McGrath (95)

Allan Border Medal - Steve Smith (171 votes)

2nd : Travis Head (144)

3rd : David Warner (141)

Women's ODI Player of the Year - Beth Mooney

Women's T20I Player of the Year - Tahlia McGrath

Shane Warne Men's Test Player of the Year - Usman Khawaja

Men's ODI Player of the Year - David Warner

Men's T20I Player of the Year - Marcus Stoinis

Women's Domestic Player of the Year - Annabel Sutherland

Men's Domestic Player of the Year - Michael Neser

Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year - Courtney Seppel

Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year - Lance Morris

Community Champion Award - Usman Khawaja

Woolworths Cricket Blaster of the Year - Mabel Tovey

Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees - Marg Jennings and Ian Redpath.

© AAP 2023

The man who has admitted abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith from her family's West Australian campsite has pleaded guilty to obstructing police.

Terence Darrell Kelly has previously admitted one count of forcibly taking a child under 16.

The 37-year-old appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Monday, where he was convicted and fined $1000 for obstructing public officers.

Cleo was found alive in November 2021, 18 days after she went missing from a remote campsite about 1000km north of Perth.

Her disappearance sparked a major police investigation which eventually led detectives to a property 75km south in Carnarvon, just minutes from Cleo's family home.

Police forced entry and found the little girl alone in a room.

The dramatic rescue was captured by an officer's body-worn camera and subsequently made news headlines around the world.

© AAP 2023

Australia's family law system is set to be simplified as part of a wide-ranging overhaul.

The federal government released draft legislation of the family law changes on Monday, which will aim to address large court delays and access to support services.

Under the proposed changes, custody arrangements will be determined by six "best-interest factors" for the child, including child safety, a child's development needs as well as the preferences of the child.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the factors for best interests would be streamlined to make the system easier for the courts and for parents.

"These long overdue proposed reforms replace the often confusing law around parenting arrangement with a simpler child-focused framework," he said.

The draft laws follow an inquiry by the Australian Law Reform Commission in 2019, as well as a parliamentary probe into the issue in 2021.

The proposed changes will also remove the presumption of "equal shared parental responsibility", due to inquiries concluding the measure was misunderstood.

The presumption meant parents were required to consult with each other when making long-term decisions, but was often misinterpreted as creating a right to an equal amount of shared time with children.

The laws will also introduce a requirement for independent children's lawyers to meet with children to make sure their viewpoints were considered when court decisions are made.

Courts will be provided with greater powers to protect affected parties and children from protracted and adversarial litigation.

The changes propose a definition of what is a member of the family that would be inclusive of Indigenous concepts of family and kinship.

The changes have been welcomed by sexual, domestic and family violence prevention group Full Stop Australia.

Family lawyer and the organisation's advocacy manager Angela Lynch said the presumption of "inflexible" shared parental responsibility led to serious abuses in the system.

She said it enabled perpetrators to game the system and manipulated traumatised families.

"These changes will help protect victims who are in serious danger when they leave abusive relationships," Ms Lynch said.

"The current system provides multiple opportunities for the perpetrator to engage in ongoing coercive control under the guise of following court orders."

Full Stop Australia called for decisions to be made earlier in the court process and to ensure interim orders addressed the immediate safety risk.

It also called for better ways to remove victims of family violence away from the perpetrator.

Public submissions on the draft bill are open until February 27.

© AAP 2023