Successive governments have failed to stem what has become a national crisis, despite allocating millions of dollars to do so.
Experts say levels of violence are also increasing with new forms of abuse enabled by technology.
Women and children can now be terrorised by perpetrators stalking, surveilling and harassing them from tracking devices in children's toys to threatening messages embedded in bank transfers, without the abuser even being present.
The annual cost of violence against women and their children is estimated at $26 billion, according to the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.
One in three females have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and one in five, sexual violence.
What has been missing from previous attempts to tackle the scourge is a focus on children and taking a holistic approach to prevention, journalist, author and anti-violence advocate Jess Hill told AAP.
"The only thing that matters when it comes to prevention is can we stop someone using violence, and at the moment we don't seem to be able to do that," she said.
"The big missing pieces are prevention of child maltreatment, responses to children to help them recover with their victim-parent and the almost complete silence on harmful risk factors like alcohol and gambling."
Ms Hill is also critical of the government's approach to gambling advertising and advocates a total ban.
"We have a free-for-all on gambling advertising and it is just grooming the next generation to become problem gamblers," she said.
"I want to see a much broader approach to the primary risk factors for people perpetrating gendered violence."
While the national plan is welcome, it lacks clear targets to address violence against women from refugee and culturally diverse backgrounds, youth leader Zahra Al Hilaly said.
"Racism is deeply entrenched in the justice system and women from refugee and diverse backgrounds are fearful of accessing support," she said.
"In many culturally and linguistically diverse communities there is very limited resources available to divert away from the fear many women have about accessing support."
The fear of deportation is a huge deterrent when it comes to refugee women reporting abuse, Ms Al Hilay added.
Indigenous women and children face unacceptably high rates of violence, leading to a standalone First Nations National Plan to address this.
But domestic and family violence is a "wicked problem" which is difficult to address through policy alone, Indigenous family violence, child abuse and sexual assault leading researcher Kyllie Cripps said.
"Domestic and family violence is not going to be solved by just throwing money at it, it needs structure and institutions behind it," she said.
"It is imperative that we listen to local women and other members of Indigenous communities who understand what is driving the problem locally
"If you don't have the buy-in of community and local women then those solutions will fail."
Ms Cripps added that while there had been amazing initiatives to combat rates of violence, ultimately a lack of ongoing funding stymied efforts.
"Initiatives come and go because we never fund them sustainably," she said.
"These programs are often funded on a trial basis and then governments change and the priorities change and those programs disappear."
Ms Al Hilaly, Ms Cripps and Ms Hill will appear at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday, March 9 as part of the All About Women festival, featuring in the State of Emergency panel, in person and livestreamed.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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