Ms Bryce said she didn’t hesitate when Premier Campbell Newman asked her to take up the role, saying she had a “personal and moral obligation” to do what she could to stem the tide of abuse.

“It’s pervasive, it’s insidious, and it’s got to be stopped,” she said.

“Violence against women is one of the gravest human rights challenges of our time.”

Ms Bryce said Queensland rates of domestic violence had grown alarmingly in the past ten years.

“The number of reported incidents increased from 58,000 in 2012 to 64,000 in 2013,” she said.

“What this means is there are about 175 reports of domestic violence incidents every single day, and no one’s going to dispute that this is absolutely appalling.”

Of the 49 homicides in Queensland in 2013, 18 were related to domestic violence.

CEO of DV Connect Diane Mangan said Queensland stood out among the states as having a higher number of reported incidents.

“The domestic violence sector around Australia would say that every month six women die at the hands of their partner, someone they love,” she said.

“At least one of those, sometimes it’s two of those a month, come from Queensland.”

She said the non-government service was always stretched.

“As I’m speaking, there would be probably between five or 10 women being moved around the state now to a place of safety,” she said.

“This goes on night and day in Queensland, and our service – the 24 hours statewide line - is the busiest line in the country.”

Mr Newman said his mother had established one of the first women’s shelters in Launceston in 1976 and he grew up hearing terrible stories about battered women.

“40 years ago these things were going on, and here today they still are, these horrific acts, and that is just completely unacceptable,” he said.

“Surely we should have moved on in four decades?”

The Premier said the taskforce would be comprised of two LNP MPs, a Labor MP and an independent MP, plus community representatives.

Mr Newman said they would carry out statewide consultation with communities, families, public sector workers, NGOs and other key stakeholders.

“We didn’t want this to be adversarial, we didn’t want this legalistic, or a process you get in commissions of inquiry,” he said.

“We want to get to the root of the issues, and come up with some really meaningful responses, whether it be about laws, policing policies and practices, support that’s available, how we support families and protect kids – we’ve got to look at the whole thing.”

The Premier expects the cost of the taskforce to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, although Ms Bryce is not being paid for her services.

Mr Newman said he would consider other funding once the taskforce handed down its report in February 2015.