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"Violence against women starts with disrespect. The excuses we make allow it to grow. Violence against women. Let's stop it, at the start."
For years, advertisements like that have been sending an important message.
But as Social Services Minister Amanada Rishworth explains, there are concerns the message is not reaching everyone.
“Women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are more likely to experience some kind of domestic or sexual violence. Therefore it's clear we need to better support these women access help. We also know there's barriers for these women accessing help. It might be distrust of government, it might be shame or it might be indeed a language barrier."
The federal government has pledged $3 million for a new training program after the Minister met community and faith leaders in western Sydney.
It will aim to give those leaders the tools to connect those facing abuse to existing support services as well as increase knowledge and understanding around indicators of domestic violence.
The program is seen as essential for community and faith leaders, who are often the first point of contact for those experiencing abuse in multicultural communities.
Sri Karpaga Vinayagar Temple Secretary, Vithyadaran Sarma, says it's important those leaders are given the right tools to help their community.
"They're not qualified to have a degree as a counsellor but they're the one talking to the family members, they're getting their grievances, they're talking about their family issues. They're like doctors, when they go to the doctor they talk about their personal issues. Other than their body health issues, they say my son is not studying he's going partying - they'll come and talk to the priest and feel like their burden has been reduced."
On average in Australia, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner - while 2 in 5 women have experienced violence since the age of 15.
In 2022, federal, state and territory governments pledged to end violence against women and children within one generation as part of a 10-year national strategy.
Multicultural Women's Alliance Co-Founder Professor Supriya Singh says changing those statistics will mean grassroots support - because funding is currently difficult to find.
"What you have is a few organisations, heavily funded and a lot of small culturally sensitive services, that actually are struggling for funding to keep their offices. Some of them have had to close down even though they were delivering very highly needed services."
But Minister Rishworth says she's confident this initiative is different.
"Whoever is successful in rolling out this training will need to demonstrate the ability to work with local organisations on the ground and have the network of people we need to reach. Of course, we want to reach the faith leaders and community leaders which so many people go to for advice. That might be relationship, parenting advice or just for a console. And so partnering with organisations on the ground for this training is so important."
And so with many domestic violence shelters at capacity around the country, Dr Singh is calling for ongoing investment to tackle one of the nation's biggest crises.
"You know healing takes a long time, empowerment takes a long time. And funding is short term and episodic so we need to have a match there. It becomes even worse when the organisation offering this healing is itself not well-funded."
If you or someone you know wants to talk about family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
