Roundup: Australia aims to stamp out "victim blaming" in new domestic violence campaign

A disturbing report on domestic violence in Australia has uncovered entrenched attitudes in the community which often excuse men for behaving violently towards women.

The report found a subconscious "victim blaming" culture still existed in Australia which threatened to undermine the government's new 21 million U.S. dollar campaign to reduce the number of women killed or injured each year by their partners.

The government-backed study, released on Wednesday, found attitudes which excused men for perpetrating violence against women were "firmly entrenched," despite almost 96 percent of the community condemning domestic violence.

Around 1,000 young Australians, aged between 10 and 25, were surveyed as part of the study.

It found both sexes made concessions for -- or attempted to justify -- the aggressive behavior of men toward their partners, and women often inadvertently blamed themselves for violent incidents.

Some female interviewees reportedly said the abused women "must have done something wrong" as it "takes two to tango."

Furthermore, women commonly believed men used threats of physical violence as an attention-seeking mechanism, and excused angry outbursts as a product of males "having a bad day."

While men often reverted to cliches such as "boys will be boys" in an attempt to explain the worrying social phenomenon.

Former Victorian Police commissioner Ken Lay, who is now chair of the COAG Advisory Panel on Reducing Violence against Women and Children, said on Wednesday he was left shaken by the findings.

"For the all things I've seen, in my many, many years, in Victoria Police, this important evidence of the origins of gender violence and our complacency to it, brought me to tears," Lay said.

On Wednesday, Australia's Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull announced a 21.78 million U.S. dollar package to combat the problem, with the initiative coinciding with the country's national awareness day for domestic violence, White Ribbon Day.

After coming to power in September, Turnbull earmarked domestic violence as a major focus for the government under his leadership, saying he wanted to enact a "cultural shift" by making the nation's male population view any disrespectful treatment toward women as "un-Australian."

Two Australian women have been killed by a current or former partner each week this year, according to the prime minister.

"The fact that it occurs within a relationship makes it no less violent than violence that occurs on the streets," Turnbull told reporters on Wednesday, following the report's release.

"These attitudes have to change. These are big cultural changes we need to effect."

On Tuesday night, Federal Member of Parliament Sarah Henderson told Parliament how a friend of hers, Monique Denahy, a former Australian TV presenter, had been killed three days ago in the U.S. at the hands of her abusive partner.

Denahy, 49, was planning to leave her American partner and return home to Australia before she was murdered at their Florida home in an apparent murder-suicide.

Australia's Social Service Minister Christian Porter said on Wednesday the new campaign was as much about changing the attitudes of women as men.

"There just has to be an acceptance ultimately that they are not to blame," Porter said. "They are never to blame in these circumstances ever." Enditem