Three Indigenous women have joined forces to demand a national task force to combat the epidemic of family violence in Aboriginal communities.
University of Melbourne Professor Marcia Langton, Alice Springs Councillor Jacinta Price and Josephine Cashman from the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council made their case at the National Press Club in Canberra.
"People's lives are at risk. And it's time to actually match the rhetoric with action," said Josephine Cashman, who is a Worimi entrepeneur, lawyer and business woman.
Ms Cashman called for an intergovernmental task force and said the Turnbull government is dragging its feet.
"I have reapproached the PM in his new term and there's been complete silence."
Aboriginal women are up to 35 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be hospitalised because of domestic violence.
"In remote communities, traditional culture is shrouded in secrecy which allows perpetrators to control their victims," Jacinta Price an elected member of the Alice Springs Council said on Thursday.
"I call upon the federal government to do what has been done in light of Aboriginal youth in detention and hold a royal commission into the countless homicides, acts of violence and sexual abuse perpetrated against this country's most marginalised."
Ms Cashman said a fear of reprisals or becoming homeless stops victims reporting it, which then manifests as youth suicide, substance abuse and the continuation of a destructive cycle.
"Within this culture of silence, the police are the enemy. And anyone who reports or talks to them is called a dog and a snitch for collaborating with the white authority," she said.
The trio criticised the government's national action plan, which recommends an avoidance of police and courts to resolve the problem amid disproportionately high Indigenous incarceration rates.
"We are witnessing the Stockholm Syndrome writ large by Indigenous perpetrators, and their government and agency partners explaining this horrible situation as a matter of culture," Prof Langton said.
"This is the most racist of all stereotypes, so much worse than Bill Leak's cartoon of an Aboriginal man asking the police officer for his son's name."
They said the 'No More' campaign in the Northern Territory, a grassroots effort that started in football teams but has since spread to entire communities, is the most effective in forcing men to take responsibility.
"In a community in Arnhem Land, this program reduced violence rates by 70 per cent," Prof Langton said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have committed to linking arms before parliament ends this year in a symbolic gesture to support the 'No More' campaign, founded by Darwin's Charlie King.
Mr King wants members from all sides of politics to join in and spark a national conversation before Christmas.
"There's always a spike over the holiday season. But this can unite a nation," he told AAP.
