A senior Liberal MP has accused the Albanese government of burying its head in the sand over the rates of crime and abuse in Alice Springs.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has highlighted crime rates in the Northern Territory town but came under fire for alleging children were being returned to abusive households, without citing evidence.
But Indigenous Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle defended Mr Dutton and challenged people who questioned the claim to prove it was not occurring.
"I say prove it's not happening and then we can have a conversation about the kind of language we can actually use for this," Senator Liddle told ABC Radio on Friday.
"You've got the statistics, which everyone accepts are under-reported and under-represented."
Liberal senator Simon Birmingham said the government's reaction to Mr Dutton raising this issue suggested its head was buried in the sand.
"These are a known scourge and shame on our nation and they ought to be an ongoing focus of governments," he told Sky News.
"Nobody pretends the solutions to the areas of dysfunction are easy but the problems are real (and) people speak of them honestly.
"Peter Dutton has spent time in those communities, to his credit, and it was amazing to see people seek to politicise him simply stating the facts."
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said both sides of politics had worked to improve the situation in Alice Springs and problems in the Northern Territory town should not be politicised.
He told Nine's Today Show Alice Springs should not be made a "political football" and the government had worked to try and improve the rates of crime and substance abuse.
The Northern Territory police minister on Thursday slammed Mr Dutton's comments as a "dog act", adding his visit was opportunistic after his party's decade in government.
Country Liberal Party senator Jacinta Price, the former deputy mayor of Alice Springs, defended Mr Dutton.
"I know of children in my own extended family. I know of children in other people's families. Everybody knows what's going on," she said.
Senator Price said the Opposition leader, a former police officer, wanted to see a reduction in child sexual abuse.
