Today they'll be called to at least six more. Likely more as it's a Saturday.

There'll be six more call outs tomorrow. And six more on Monday. And so this pattern will continue, leaving us with more than 2300 victims a year.

These figures only cover incidents where police are called. Who knows how many hundreds of women and children suffer in silence, or lie about their injuries to friends and family.

The numbers also don't show the more subtle and insidious forms of abuse and violence, such as verbal intimidation and controlling behaviour.

Family violence is a stain on our state and our country, and should keep our leaders awake at night trying to find a solution.

This week, staff at Launceston's Magnolia Place women's shelter said they had turned away nearly 400 people between July and December, because they simply have no room.

The majority of the women they help are fleeing family violence, including some from interstate.

The hardworking staff at the centre would not give their full names out for fear of their own safety.

This is a crisis, and can no longer be ignored. Every day that no action is taken is a day wasted.

There are far too many women and children living in terror, and far, far too many men who think it is their right to control and abuse them.

If we gave family violence just a fraction of the attention and resources that we devote to fighting terrorism, who knows what can be achieved.

The cash-strapped federal government found $630 million in August for a counter-terrorism package - no doubt a worthy cause - but at the same time funding has been cut for organisations that are fighting and responding to domestic violence at the coal face.

The terrible decision to give Prince Philip a knighthood unfortunately overshadowed the positive step of Rosie Batty becoming Australian of the Year.

Since then, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced plans to make family violence orders applicable across states and to do more to track perpetrators across jurisdictions.

Mr Abbott has appointed Ms Batty and former Victorian police commissioner Ken Lay to a national family violence advisory panel.

Practical steps to combat domestic violence and national attention on the issue should be applauded, but they are a fraction of what is needed.

More resources have to be given to women's shelters, community legal centres and social workers if there is to be a significant reduction in the number of violent incidents.

For the state government, police should be given better resources to enforce family violence orders, and consideration given to stronger punishments for offenders who breach them.

The more difficult part of the solution is at a societal level, and that involves public information, and some frank and honest conversations about subjects that we as Australians have found it taboo for too long.

The efforts to reduce the road toll since the 1970s provide a good blueprint of a way forward, with a greater focus on road safety and the unacceptability of drink-driving saving thousands of lives.

But every day we wait, there are six more Tasmanian victims.