Violence against women

The workshop, run by the Australia Federal Police and the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, will also help them understand gender dynamics as well as laws relating to gender-based violence.

30 police are involved in what is the fourth Regional Police Training Program to be held since 2014.

The co-ordinator of the Crisis Centre, Shamima Ali, said with the high rates of violence against women in the Pacific, it is vital that officers understand its dynamics and how perpetrators operate, so they are better able to respond.

But 12 extra Pacific Island women every day have received help from crisis support services in the three years since Australia set up its $320 million, 10-year program to help improve the lives of women in the region.

The Turnbull government is aggressively pursuing the program, which was launched by then prime minister Julia Gillard at the Pacific Islands Forum summit in the Cook Islands in 2012.

In Fiji last night, Minister for International Development and the Pacific Steven Ciobo delivered a report on progress in the first three years.

Tuiloma Sina Retzlaff says the police inspector's comments were made on White Ribbon Day, just hours after the Police Commissioner, Egon Keil, had led a march against violence in Apia.

She says the comments are contradictory to a 'break the silence, stop the violence' campaign the police are leading, which invites victims to have the courage to step forward and report domestic violence.

She says the officer had also suggested that everything can be solved in the matrimonial bed, and that there are levels of incidents not worth reporting.