Northern Territory federal Labor MP Warren Snowdon has called on the government to restore funding to frontline services in central Australia to combat the domestic violence ‘crisis’ in the region.
He said 60 per cent of assaults in the Territory are associated with domestic violence, and Aboriginal women are victims in 72 per cent of all cases.
Indigenous women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised from family violence and 10 times more likely to be killed as a result of a violent assault.
The member for the sprawling seat of Lingiari said the federal government is dragging its feet on the issue.
The coalition has cut funding to already under-resourced legal services, and only $5 million of the government’s $100 domestic violence package directly goes towards frontline services for indigenous women, he said.
Last month NT police commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed there have been 75,000 reports of family violence in the past three years.
AAP
