Professor Angelika Henschel has continued the work of her former student, Tamworth social worker Sabine Altman, who devoted her working life to fighting domestic violence, and died in a tragic car accident in 2012. 

At a public lecture at Coledale Community Centre last week, Dr Henschel told a packed room that domestic violence was an issue for the whole community and was born from gender inequality. 

“One part of domestic violence is the imbalance of power between men and women,” she said. “Incidents of domestic violence are much higher in rural areas than in the cities. The problem is ... a lack of services.”

She said education was needed to dispel myths that domestic violence was an expression of masculinity, that men committed violence against their loved ones because they were drunk, or that it only affected impoverished families. 

UNE Professor of Rural Nursing Cynthia Stuhlmiller directs a student-led clinic at Coledale and agreed with Dr Henschel that domestic violence was an issue that affected all tiers of society. 

“It’s everybody’s business and nobody is exempt,” Ms Stuhlmiller said. 

She said foetal alcohol syndrome “was a precursor to violence” and victims often stayed in harmful relationships because the violence was occasional. 

Comparing the situation in Germany and Australia, Dr Henschel said one in four German women would suffer intimate partner violence and they earned 23 per cent less than German men. 

In Australia, fulltime working women earned 17.5 per cent less than their male counterparts in 2013. In 2012 an estimated 17 per cent of all women experienced violence at the hands of their partner, compared with 5.3 per cent of men, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.