Nat Barr utters the words on every Australian woman’s lips as she grills Labor minister: ‘We need answers’

Nat Barr has demanded answers from Australian politicians on what can be done to stop a wave of horrific domestic violence against women.

According to White Ribbon, 25 women have been murdered so far this year at the hands of their partners or former partners.

Mother of one Molly TicehurstThe 28-year-old was found dead early on Monday at her home in the NSW town of Forbes, about 370km west of Sydney.

Ms Ticehurst’s ex-boyfriend Daniel Billings, 29, has been charged with her alleged murder.

Home Secretary Clare O’Neil and Finance Minister Jane Hume joined Barr at Sunrise on Wednesday morning to discuss how to end the violence.

“We sit here and we do this every week, this is a national crisis, we’re looking for answers,” Barr said.

Ms Hume agreed, saying anyone who didn’t think there was a problem with violence against women in Australia needed to “wake up”.

“Twenty-five deaths (allegedly) by intimate partners in one year alone are unacceptable,” she said.

“But the fact that it’s only April and this is the number we’re looking at should set alarm bells ringing.”

She said that while government frameworks had been put in place to end violence against women, more needed to be done.

‘Not only focused on response, but even more importantly on prevention. Not just in education, but in those practical, evidence-based approaches to ensuring violent offenders cannot re-offend, and do not offend in the first place,” Ms Hume said.

Molly Ticehurst (photo) is said to have been murdered by her ex-partner before 2am on Monday morning

‘But it is possible and we must do better. Not just for young women like the ones we’ve seen in New South Wales in recent days but for all women in Australia, because thousands live in fear every day and that is unacceptable in a country like ours.”

Barr asked whether more needed to be done on bail laws, as many women had died while their attackers were out on bail.

“Their families, their friends know about this and they tell us that after we knew about this, we tried to get help,” the Sunrise host said.

‘AVOs [are] obviously useless in a lot of cases, because we hear that they tried to get help, that in many cases they went to the police before they were killed, and then, you know, there’s nothing they can do.”

Ms O’Neil said it was “exhausting” being a woman in Australia, where so many news reports of violence circulate.

“It’s the men and their behavior that need to change here and we need men to step up, have conversations with their friends about this issue and try to talk about how we can change society for the better,” she said.

“Because we just can’t go on like this.”

Daniel Billings (pictured) was charged over the alleged murder of his ex-girlfriend, Molly Ticehurst

The calls for more action come after details emerged about Ms Ticehurst’s alleged killer.

He appeared at Orange Local Court on Tuesday charged with the murder of Ms Ticehurst and breaching a violence order.

The father-of-one was also due in court to face three separate charges of sexual assault, multiple charges of stalking and destruction of property, plus a charge of animal cruelty.

Billings and Ms Ticehurst dated for about 18 months until July last year, but briefly reunited in December.

Billings, originally from Queensland, was on bail on the other charges at the time of Ms Ticehurst’s death. He was ordered by the court not to approach her.