This statistic doesn’t even include the large number of domestic partnership and family related apprehended violence orders over the same period, and only includes cases where charges were laid by police.

It is difficult to imagine how many cases of family violence go unreported in Australia.

According to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research there were 118 domestic violence related assaults in the Bega Valley from July last year to June this year.

The same bureau also says “less than half of all people who have been a victim of domestic violence report the incident”.

Police admit little is known of the reasons why a large proportion of victims do not report abusive behaviour from family members.

Is it because we are a violent culture in general?

In 2012 the Australian Bureau of Statistics released a national personal safety report with results showing a staggering one in four Australian men aged 18-24 had experienced violence in the previous 12 months.

For women in the same age group the rate was almost one in eight.

The report’s results on stalking in Australia are also higher than one would expect, with almost one in six Australian women experiencing the behaviour, many feeling it was being done “with the intent to harm or frighten them”.

So how do we do more than just say “no”?

Following the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence this year, a number of recommendations were made, including an immediate funding boost to services, the installation of safety hubs in communities, a central information point to funnel information about perpetrators to hubs, a ‘blitz’ to rehouse victims forced to leave their homes, more specialist family violence courts, stronger perpetrator programs with increased monitoring, family violence training for all key workforces, investment in respectful relationships education in schools, and an independent agency to hold government to account.