Statement of support: NT domestic violence coronial inquest findings

The Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA) welcomes the findings this week of the Northern Territory Coroner, Elisabeth Armitage, into the deaths of four Aboriginal women in the NT as a result of domestic and family violence. The systemic failures of services to protect women must be addressed as an urgent priority. 

Governments and the service providers they employ have an obligation under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap to make substantial systemic change. This change must have cultural safety at its core if the Closing the Gap targets are to be met. Target 13 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap aims to reduce family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children by at least 50% by 2031.  

The report highlights the interpersonal and structural racism prevalent throughout the NT’s police and other services that have impacted on the women’s deaths.  AIDA supports the recommendation for the NT’s health department and police force to commit to fully rolling out specialist training for frontline workers, and we strongly call for that training to be trauma informed and have cultural safety at its heart. 

That this report was released in the same week as the National Anti-Racism Framework, tells us that there is still much work to do.