The Northern Territory government has been told it must overhaul its response to family violence to stop women and children being killed.
The NT coroner on Monday handed down inquest findings into the deaths of four Aboriginal women, making 35 recommendations.
Coroner Elisabeth Armitage, who became emotional while delivering the findings, made clear that the wide-ranging recommendations should be implemented in full to save lives.
The inquest was held into the deaths of Miss Yunupiŋu, Ngeygo Ragurrk, Kumarn Rubuntja and Kumanjayi Haywood.
All four women reported fears for their safety to authorities or loved ones in the weeks, months and even years before they were killed. Their killers had histories of family violence and were known to police.
The recommendations included that the NT government should fund a peak body to tackle family and sexual violence, increase investment in alcohol and drug rehabilitation and the Aboriginal Interpreter Service, expand a specialist family and sexual violence court, commit to developing alternatives to custody for perpetrators, and increase its core baseline funding for crisis services.
The NT police were also told it should commit to a “significantly expanded and appropriately resourced” domestic, family and sexual violence command in Alice Springs and Darwin, which would be headed by an assistant commissioner and include permanent positions and a training unit that would ensure the force was aware of best practice in response to the issue.
“I make the following recommendations in the sincere hope that they will be implemented fully and that meaningful, long-term change will result and lives will be saved,” Armitage said in her findings.
She said to the women’s families that “we have talked about tragic times and their tragic deaths”.
“But I know that you remember them smiling and laughing, sharing stories and spending time on country, and happy times with family. They lived and were loved.
“In handing down these findings, I will remember them that way too.”
Armitage was scathing about the failures of the NT government to respond to the issue.
“These deaths were senseless and shocking. They were also preventable.
“We must bear witness to the suffering of these women, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us.
“They must not be forgotten and their suffering must not be ignored. It must compel us to action. We must not take the radical action needed to stop more women from dying.”
Armitage found that rates of family violence in the NT were far higher than in other Australian jurisdictions. She found that in 2021 the rate was three times the national average, and five times that of most other jurisdictions where data is reported, and that the rate of related homicides was seven times the national average.
In Australia’s worst jurisdiction for family violence, Aboriginal women were significantly over-represented.
Armitage also found the problem was getting worse, with NT police figures showing they recorded a 117% increase in the number of family and sexual violence reports over the past decade, and predicted a further 73% jump during the next decade. The NT police spends almost half its entire policing budget on the issue.
But Armitage said that after the Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Interagency Coordination and Reform Office (DFSV-ICRO) was tasked with developing and reforming the NT government’s approach to the issue, it called for a $180m budget commitment. It was instead given $20m.
“This was woefully inadequate and a gut-wrenching discovery for the … sector.
“It was one important example, but not the only example I heard, of rejection or inaction on what I consider to be reasonable recommendations or proposals being made by experts about how to respond to this crisis.
“I adopt the observation of senior counsel assisting [Dr Peggy Dwyer] that: ‘It is a terrible waste of money to repeat investigations that result in similar recommendations, and it is a tragic waste of lives for them to be ignored or not seriously actioned.’”
Armitage found the reasons for high rates of violence in the NT were a variety of socioeconomic, historical and cultural reasons.
These included the ongoing impacts of colonisation, including the impact of intergenerational trauma, systemic disadvantage and discrimination, cultural dislocation and removal of children, entrenched community attitudes towards violence, the expense of service delivery and challenges of recruiting and retaining skilled labour, geographical distance and remoteness of some areas, and a lack of basic infrastructure.
She said the gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal women in the territory’s domestic and family violence statistics must mean there were factors that contributed “to their unique vulnerability”.
This included trauma, loss and grief in families and communities, and chronic disadvantage in many forms including poverty, housing instability and mental illness.
Armitage also noted, however, the muted response to the deaths of Aboriginal women at the hands of violent men.
“The shocking rate of Aboriginal women being killed as a result of domestic violence in the NT has largely been met with silence from the broader territory and Australian communities, and a persistent inadequate allocation of resources to address this complex issue.
“I take judicial notice of the public outpourings of grief and outrage following the deaths of non-Aboriginal women, most often in other parts of Australia, and the political and legislative responses triggered by these deaths.
“That the deaths of Aboriginal women in the NT does not evoke the same reaction is indicative of systemic racism in the way their voices go unheard: the belief that these women are somehow less deserving of our grief, outrage and our collective response.”
Armitage said that while she had heard evidence about the failures of individual police officers in responding to specific family violence cases, she had decided against naming these officers as her focus was on “systemic failings and necessary systemic change”.
