On Monday NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage called a special one-day inquest to receive an update on what’s been done in the Northern Territory to tackle rising rates of Domestic Violence.
It follows a landmark inquiry last June into the deaths of four Aboriginal women at the hands of their partners.
The investigated uncovered a "woefully underfunded" and overburdened system operating in "crisis mode" had contributed to their deaths.
“It is still not clear to me what has actually been done to start addressing the urgent need in the Northern Territory," Judge Armitage told the court on Monday.
“Family and domestic violence is being discussed across the nation, in part because of a number of high-profile and shocking deaths in the southern states. But it is clear to me from the evidence that I have heard, that family and domestic violence in the Northern Territory is a national shame.”
In the Northern Territory people are seven times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than anywhere else in the country.
Since 2000, the coroner's office has recorded the deaths of 81 women at the hands of their partners — 93 per cent of them were Aboriginal.
Coroner Elisabeth Armitage heard from various people including NT Police representatives and frontline workers. Source: AAP / Aaron Bunch
He told the coroner that police response times and dispatch times to domestic violence incidents had increased since the inquest began six months ago.
He attributed those increases to a rising number of priority-one call-outs and a lack of police officers available to respond.
"This is unprecedented, the amount of demand on police officers on a range of issues, but particularly family and domestic violence," he said.
The cost of DFSV to NT police was projected to reach $156 million by 2027 and $209 million by 2030 – almost half of the entire police operating budget.
When later questioned over whether more needs to be done to fund prevention and early intervention services to take the pressure off the demand for front line policing, Commissioner Murphy agreed.
“Yes I agree, imagine in four years or in the next budget cycle you could actually reduce police numbers because we’ve got the prevention and engagement right,” Commissioner Murphy said.
Funding decreased due to rising costs
In a submission made to the coroner on Monday, Rachael Uebergang, the NT Regional Manager for YWCA (a DV support service provider), detailed evidence of underfunding in the sector.
The statement shows, despite more funding allocated, funding has stagnated while demand for services continues to rise.
This is due to indexation increases, and wage increases, coupled with ongoing NT government efficiency dividend and budget savings measures.
For the 2023-24 budget period, Ms Uebergang wrote: “I learned that funding for DFVC would be cut by -0.655 per cent”.
The predicted increase in YWCA funding between 2018 - 2028 is 0.96 per cent.
“In real terms, the funding has decreased due to rising costs,” the statement read.
YWCA data shows the output of their domestic violence services has remained the same from July 2020 to now, despite a 279 per cent increase in unmet demand in the same timeframe.
The need for 'sustainable needs-based funding'
In 2022 the NT government developed the Interagency Coordinated and Reform Office (ICRO) and tasked it with analysing gaps in DVSF investments in the Territory.
That group called for an urgent $180 million spend over five years for services such as women’s shelters, behaviour change programs and policy reform.
Last August the inquest heard the Northern Territory government had rejected that proposal.
Instead, it provided the sector with $20 million over two years.
The recent NT Budget handed down last week provided an additional $30 million over the next two years.
The inquest heard on Monday, due to its small population, the NT receives just 4.6 per cent of federal funding under the national partnership agreement on family and domestic violence - a total of around $28.8 million.
The NT government director of strategic policy in the domestic, family and sexual violence reduction division, Anna Davis, told the coroner “sustainable needs-based funding” is urgently required.
“We can all agree that significant funding is needed in this area but what is equally important is that investment is sustainable and ongoing.”
“It’s very difficult to get skilled, qualified, staff especially in regional and remote areas.
“When there is one, two, three year funding, that becomes even more difficult because we are requiring people to sign a very short term contract.
“To be able to retain the workforce in this space and grow the workforce - especially in men’s behaviour change programs, which is a very specialist area - we need to be able to offer longer than short term funding agreements.”
Calls for a peak body
There is currently no DFSV peak organisation in the Northern Territory.
“The lack of peak organisation has had an impact on the sector’s ability to be strategic and well organised thus impacting on the government’s ability to consult with and take advice from the sector," Ms Uebergang wrote in her statement.
“I call on the government to fund a process that assists the sector to design an appropriate peak organisation model that effectively represents the needs of women and children experiencing DFSV.”
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