Today, The Courier is publishing yet another horrific story surrounding family violence in our community. 

Yesterday, the Victorian government unveiled its latest intuitive to tackle the problem across the state, introducing a Victorian Family Violence Index which would collate information on family violence incidents to help understand where and how funds should be allocated. 

But what both stories show is that the government needs to urgently speed up any initiatives it has in planning to tackle the family violence scourge which is the leading cause of death and disability in Victoria for women under 45.

At the end of this four-year term in government, Daniel Andrews will need to hang his hat on at least one particular issue if he wants to have a chance of staying in power for consecutive terms. 

And what better issue to tackle than preventing family violence. 

This newspaper has always been a passionate supporter of anti-family violence moves and welcomes the announcement of the index, but it is important that this announcement is only the very first step. 

It is important that the premier does not stand before the community and just say he is fast-tracking measures to tackle the issue, we need to see more than that. We need to see action.

This issue is not one that we can afford to wait for. Of course, the issue is deeper than government intervention but right now this community, like so many others, needs all the help we can get. 

With every case that appears before the court, further proof is provided that more needs to be done. 

The bottom line is that we as a community need to demand even more of ourselves and of our government to rid our society of the problem. 

Now more than ever we need to be having discussions about what we can do to address what is happening in our homes and the government should take the lead. 

In 2018, this state government will be judged on a lot of things. 

But arguably the most important thing Daniel Andrews should be judged on is how he tackled family violence.