The Northern Territory has today appointed Kate Worden as its first minister dedicated to the prevention of domestic, family, and sexual violence.
Ms Worden, herself a survivor of domestic violence, said the newly-created portfolio was one close to her heart.
"It's something I've been through myself," she said.
"I want to make sure that the less women that experience that the better."
To prevent domestic, family, and sexual violence, the NT government has today announced an additional $10 million in funding as part of its 2022 budget.
Alongside other initiatives, this money will go towards establishing an Aboriginal-led community-based specialist sexual assault service and fund culturally-safe training for primary health and hospital staff.
Ms Worden said health workers and frontline staff needed the "tools" to respond appropriately to survivors.
"Often [health workers] are the first responders, they get to see people the first time they come in and if that first interaction isn't right, we know that often women might just go home and that [violence] might continue," she said.
Ms Worden said this money, funded over four years, was separate to the $10.7 million for domestic violence services in the NT announced by the Commonwealth in February.
Violence rates 'soared' during COVID
Prior to the pandemic, the NT had Australia's highest rates of domestic, family, and sexual violence in Australia.
Ms Worden said these rates have worsened during the pandemic.
The latest crime statistics from NT Police shows the number of domestic violence-related assaults reported in the territory over the past year has increased by 8.5 per cent.
Police are dealing with more than 5,000 cases a year.Ms Worden said her goal as minister was to drive the figures "back down".
"We saw over COVID, unfortunately, right the way across not just across Australia but the world, family, domestic and sexual violence figures soared," she said.
"Most of us hoped that after COVID … those numbers would retreat slowly.
"They have reduced a slight amount, but nowhere near what they were pre-COVID numbers."
New portfolio aims to improve 'coordination'
Ms Worden said the "number one thing" that the creation of the new portfolio would do would be to highlight the issue as a government priority.
She said the role would improve "coordination across all agencies" that dealt with survivors and perpetrators.
This included health staff who treated people who had been injured, police dealing with victims and corrections staff managing those behind bars.
"The whole idea is to pull it together so there's a lot more of a tighter coordination," Ms Worden said.
"It's a privilege to get the role but it's also a huge challenge."
Prior to the new appointment, Ms Worden held the territory families and urban housing, disabilities, sport and multicultural affairs portfolios.
Ms Worden said there was a need for more support systems for survivors, but men also needed support to help prevent criminal behaviour.
"We just need to do more," she said.
"We can't just keep building more and more homes and safe places for women and children.
"We have to make sure that we can put our resources in where we're really going to get a change of those incident numbers."
'I've never seen it this busy before'
Susan Crane, the chief executive of the Dawn House women's shelter, says there has been an increase in demand for services over her 13-year tenure.
"The demand levels [for assistance] are still really high," she said.
"I've never seen it this busy before.
In December, the NT government announced $15 million for upgrades to increase the number of beds available to women and children fleeing domestic and family violence.
The government today allocated $6.5 million of this older funding to Dawn House to build seven transitional and crisis accommodation homes.
Ms Crane said current clients had to share communal living spaces such as lounge rooms and a kitchen.
"These are going to be standalone units, so it's going to give a lot more dignity to those clients and allow them to live feeling very safe and in an environment where they have their own independent environment," she said.
"It's going to be life changing … the accommodation that we have right now is nearly 50 years old."
The new homes are expected to be completed by mid-2025.
