Northern Territory MP Marion Scrymgour says the nation needs to stop "pussyfooting" around the issue of youth crime in Indigenous communities.
Ms Scrymgour, who holds the seat of Lingiari for Labor, has called for a tough love approach that doesn't treat all children committing offences as "little angels".
Crime has been recorded as spiking over the hotter summer months.
She said these children had been ignored for too long with a "softly, softly" approach, that disregarded the whole picture of their lives and family circumstances.
"Sometimes we've just got to stop pussyfooting around this issue," she told ABC's RN on Friday.
"It's a bit out of control ... we're seeing a real exodus out of central Australia, people are leaving and that could be bad for the town."
Ms Scrymgour said there needed to be more aspiration for children to have "productive lives" after having been pigeonholed by society.
Asked if the government should have legislated a model for the Indigenous voice to parliament before heading to a referendum, Ms Scrymgour said they should have "absolutely" done better.
She said she was talking to people in her electorate about what the next steps should be following the voice's defeat in October last year.
Ms Scrymgour said there was disappointment among Indigenous people who were weary of being "slapped back again".
