children. These gaps hinder efforts to prevent and respond to children’s distinct needs. 145. The National Royal Commission in 2017 recommended that the Australian Government conduct and publish a nationally representative prevalence study on a regular basis to establish the extent of child maltreatment in institutional and non‑institutional contexts in Australia.98 146. In June 2018, the Australian Government announced that NOCS would undertake consultations with relevant stakeholders to ascertain how such a study could be conducted.99 147. National data on violence against children is a priority area for improved data collection, as proposed in Recommendation 10 above. (b) Impacts of family and domestic violence on children 148. While women are predominantly the victims of violence in the family, children are frequently witnesses and bystanders, as well as direct victims.100 The work of the NCC in 2015 highlighted the damaging effects of family and domestic violence on children.101 The 2016 Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence, established in the wake of a series of family violence-related deaths in Victoria, also shed light on how children are affected in their own right.102 149. The 2016 ABS Personal Safety Survey provides some indication of the longterm impacts of witnessing family and domestic violence as a child.103 150. It showed that women who, as children, witnessed violence towards their mother or their father by a partner, were more than twice as likely to be the victim of partner violence themselves, compared with women who had not witnessed this violence.104 151. Men who witnessed violence towards their mother by a partner were almost three times as likely to be the victim of partner violence compared with men who had not.105 152. Further, violence against a parent can affect the capacity and ability of a parent to care for a child, which in turn affects a child’s wellbeing. 106 Recommendation 21: The Australian Government increases prevention measures and responses to family violence that address the distinct impacts on children. 26