In short:

The federal government has announced a national $4.7 billion package to increase frontline domestic and family violence services.

Advocates in the Northern Territory have expressed their disappointment that the funding is population-based, not needs-based.

The NT has the highest per-capita rates of domestic and family violence in Australia.

abc.net.au/news/nt-domestic-violence-needs-based-funding-calls-continue/104320672

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Domestic violence advocates have repeated calls for needs-based funding to address the Northern Territory's staggering rates of violence, after the Commonwealth unveiled a new $4.7 billion plan to boost frontline services.

The NT has the worst domestic and family violence rates in Australia, recording an intimate partner homicide rate seven times that of the national average.

For years, advocates have argued the jurisdiction's domestic violence services should be funded based on need rather than the NT's population size, which accounts for about 1 per cent of the Australian population.

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a suite of funding promises to address the national crisis on Friday, NT-based domestic violence workers expressed disappointment their calls for needs-based funding had gone unanswered.

It comes just days after an Aboriginal woman was allegedly murdered by her partner in Darwin, nine hours after a concern for welfare report was first made to emergency services.

 

Advocates have long been calling for needs-based domestic violence funding for the NT. (ABC Alice Springs: Roxanne Fitzgerald)

Rachel Neary, who sits on the steering committee of the Central Australian Family Violence and Sexual Assault Network (CAFVSAN), said "sadly, this funding is not needs-based".

"It's population-based, which will mean that the territory will miss out on a significant chunk of that money," she said.

Ms Neary said delivering effective domestic violence services to vulnerable people in disadvantaged remote communities — where the need for help was often greatest — was "particularly expensive".

National cabinet promises $4.7 billion plan for frontline family violence services

 

Photo shows Anthony Albanese

National cabinet has agreed to a $4.7 billion plan to ramp up frontline legal support for people escaping family violence.

"We have organisations running on the smell of an oily rag, doing everything they possibly can but it's just not enough," she said.

In her first appearance in Canberra as the newest member of national cabinet, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said she would lobby the Commonwealth for needs-based funding and pointed to her government's pledge to deliver $180 million over five years.

"We've been very clear that the territory is over-represented in domestic violence statistics," she said.

"I think all of my colleagues here today understand that."

However, Ms Neary said CAFVSAN and other domestic violence networks in the territory had requested a meeting with Ms Finocchiaro ahead of national cabinet but were unsuccessful.

"We wrote to her before she was elected, and we've asked for details around that $180 million," she said.

"We've also asked her to release the CLP's domestic family and sexual violence policy. So far, we've seen nothing."

Domestic violence in the NT is out of control

 

Photo shows An illustration of the outlines of four women, the background behind is purple.

Since 2000, 81 women have been killed by their partners in the Northern Territory. Four of them have been at the centre of a landmark coronial inquiry.

Aboriginal legal services have also raised concerns over insufficient funding.

In a statement, chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) Karly Warner said the federal funding package locked First Nations legal services "into a perpetual funding crisis".

"Nationally, we already can only support a fraction of the people who need our help, including victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence," she said.

"Today's announcement confirms the government thinks that is okay."

The ABC has contacted the chief minister's office for comment.