Campaigners say domestic violence is at epidemic proportions and has reached the point where it is time to declare a national emergency.

The chief executive of Domestic Violence NSW, Tracy Howe, has launched an online petition calling for zero tolerance and is urging the Prime Minister to host a national summit with state premiers and key stakeholders.

"We need mobilisation on this and it has to come from the top. We are pleading with Tony Abbott to lead on this," Ms Howe said.

"I think it's about saying for once we are going to pull together all our resources and treat this in the way we would if it was a national disaster of any kind, like a flood or a bushfire, and deal with it head on."

Domestic violence is the leading cause of death and injury in women under 45, with more than one woman murdered by her current or former partner every week.

There are young victims too, with more than one million children affected by domestic violence.

Accounting for 40 per cent of police time, the cost to the economy is $13.6 billion per year.

The Easter period marked the deaths of six women and children in a single week.

Ms Howe says it is time to stop seeing these deaths as individual cases and time to start recognising they are part of the same problem.

"We're not going to stand by and excuse, explain away, each of these homicides as they come at us like a tsunami," she said.

"Domestic and family violence is common. It's [an] epidemic and it's a national disgrace."

High-profile cases trigger a wave of support

Campaigners believe there is a groundswell of support for action in the wake of a number of high-profile domestic violence cases.

Photographs of celebrity food writer Nigella Lawson being gripped by the throat by her partner sent shockwaves around the world.

This was followed by the trial of Sydney man Simon Gittany, who was found guilty of murdering his fiancée Lisa Harnum by throwing her off a high-rise balcony when she tried to leave him.

"I would say there was a bit of a turning point with the Nigella Lawson case (and) Lisa Harnum's matter. I think the public started to say this is something that impacts everyone in the community," Ms Howe said.

"I think until then there was a supposition that it sat in certain pockets of the community, but in fact there was an understanding coming through that it's everyone's issue."

Ms Howe says there is also a growing understanding that domestic violence is not just physical.

"Mostly it's not about women and black eyes ... domestic violence is a continuum of behaviours always based in power and control," she said.

"One partner takes a position of privilege or control over another and diminishes self-esteem and worth until she's almost immobilised from it."

Karen Willis from Rape and Domestic Violence Services NSW has been working in the field for 35 years.

"It's about social isolation, it's about financial control, it can be about spiritual control, nearly always there's sexual assault in the domestic violence process and there can be emotional control, undermining and humiliating [the victim]," she said.

"It doesn't matter what she does, it's never good enough."

Calls for shift in focus from women to men

Ms Willis says she has seen little change in the levels of domestic and family violence over the years, but has witnessed a major shift in the way police respond.

"When I was a child, the concept was that if she was a better wife or mother, then he wouldn't have to hit her, and police would say unless he kills her there's nothing [they] could do," she said.

"I'm pretty sure those sorts of attitudes would not hold terribly much water anymore, and police are certainly pretty clear there are things they can do."

Ms Willis says she has also seen a change in what women are prepared to put up with.

"What we are seeing is a massive increase in those experiencing such violence coming forward to police and support services, saying 'I deserve better than this, this is not right and I want assistance'," she said.

Ms Willis says the challenge is to shift the focus from women to men.

"We've spent the last 30 to 40 years in relation to domestic violence telling women how bad it is and how to recognise bad relationships and how to escape those relationships," she said.

"What we now need to do is have that conversation with men, about how they can change that culture."

Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch is the New South Wales police spokesman on domestic violence and an ambassador for White Ribbon, the campaign to stop violence against women.

"Men need to wake up to the fact that it is a men's problem. It is perpetrated by men who use their power and control over women and until ... they wake up to that fact, nothing's going to change," he said.

No Excuse, a series of stories on domestic violence, will begin tonight in the 7pm News on ABC1.