Aust's shameful domestic violence record
Australia has an abhorrent average when it comes to deaths from domestic violence.
And if the early stages of 2015 are anything to go by, the nation is on track to maintain that average: one woman a week being killed by a current or former partner.
Six weeks into the new year, at least six lives have been snuffed out.
Five of the victims were women allegedly slain by men with whom they had had intimate relationships.
The sixth was a man with whom one of the women had started a new family, and a new life.
That couple's little boy, aged just five, was home last month when his mother and father, Renee Carter and Corey Croft, were stabbed to death at a Gold Coast home.
Ms Carter's former husband, Christopher Robert Carter, now stands accused of murder.
On Thursday, Australian of the Year Rosie Batty will mark the first anniversary of her son Luke's murder, at the hands of his mentally ill father.
In the year since Greg Anderson turned on his 11-year-old son as they played at a cricket oval in the Victorian town of Tyabb, Ms Batty has been on a mission to expose the scale of Australia's domestic violence problem.
She wasn't available to speak to AAP on Tuesday, as she prepares to mark the most awful of anniversaries and the day that transformed her into an anti-violence campaigner.
But she used her Australian of the Year acceptance speech to urge all Australians to walk with her and pull the domestic violence epidemic out of the shadows.
"No matter where you live, family violence exists in every pocket of every neighbourhood," she said in January.
"To the Australian people, look around. Do not ignore what you see and what you know is wrong."
Since Ms Batty was named Australian of the Year, some progress has been made to help families living in violent situations.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced last month he would ask state and territory leaders to fast-track a national domestic violence order scheme to ensure the orders applied across state borders.
Ms Batty says the change will make a difference, but the real gains will be made when society engages with the problem, and acts to fight it.
FATAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INCIDENTS SINCE JANUARY 1, 2015:
- Jan 17
Sydney hairdresser Leila Alavi is stabbed to death, allegedly by her estranged husband Mokhtar Hosseiniamraei. The 26-year-old's body was found in a car in an underground car park near her workplace.
- Jan 20
Renee Carter and Corey Croft are stabbed to death at a Gold Coast home, allegedly by Ms Carter's former partner Christopher Robert Carter. The slain couple's five-year-old son was home when the killings took place and told neighbours he found their bodies.
- Jan 25
A 50-year-old woman is murdered by her partner at a house in Dianella, in Perth's northern suburbs. Police say the man killed the woman before taking his own life.
- Feb 2
Pregnant Gold Coast woman Fabiana Palhares, 34, dies from massive head injuries after she was allegedly attacked by her former partner Brock Wall, who has been charged with murder. She was reportedly attacked with a small axe.
- Feb 7
Mother of two Adelle Collins, 39, is found stabbed to death at her home at Ningi, near Bribie Island, north of Brisbane. Her former partner Steven Storie has been charged with murder.
