Half of the women murdered in Australia are killed by their intimate partners, almost always male.

Domestic violence is also the biggest cause of homelessness among women and children in Australia.

The economic cost to Australia of domestic violence has been estimated at about $14 billion a year.

Dozens of women have been murdered in Australia this year in the context of domestic violence, prompting a belated burst of national soul-searching as leaders – put on the spot by demands for action – struggle to rise to the challenge.

In the latest cases a 12-year-old girl was allegedly killed by her stepfather at Aberglasslyn and a pregnant 37-year-old was allegedly killed by her allegedly ice-addicted partner in Sydney.

The institute of criminology has maintained that the risk factors driving Australia’s epidemic of domestic ­violence include ‘‘macho constructions of masculinity’’, excessive ­alcohol consumption and the culture that encourages it and peer pressure to conform to these destructive ­patterns.

Negative attitudes towards women are an important part of the ingrained cultural problem and are stronger among young men – especially in some sporting subcultures – and are influenced by exposure to pornography and violence and violent role ­models in popular entertainment.

Interestingly, this week the former head of the Australian Army, Lieutenant General David Morrison, gave a talk in support of young men in which he deplored gratuitous sex and violence in the media and entertainment. 

Having battled sexism and misogyny in the armed forces, he said he believed that the army was a microcosm of wider Australian society.

This is precisely the point, and it is the same point that needs to be raised whenever Australia’s culture of ­alcohol-fuelled violence is discussed.

Efforts to teach young men ways to maintain self-esteem without resorting to harming others and to solve problems peacefully are constantly thwarted by overwhelming cultural influences pushing hard in the opposite direction.

The well-intentioned messages of preventative programs will be lost while ever violence and misogyny are celebrated in popular music and sympathetically or acceptingly portrayed in film and on television.

So far the loudest calls have been for quicker responses by police and courts to threats against women by violent partners and ex-partners. 

That is definitely needed, but extensive cultural change is ultimately the bigger and more important answer.