NT senator says child protection 'needs to change' after niece's alleged murder

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of her family.

Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says the "culture of child protection" in Australia "needs to change" after the "utter failings" of the NT's child welfare system in the lead up to her niece's alleged murder were laid bare.

Speaking after a review into the department's contact with Kumanjayi Little Baby's family was tabled in NT parliament this morning, Senator Nampijinpa Price said her five-year-old niece had been "let down" by the system.

"It just exposes the stark reality of the utter failings of a system that is supposed to protect our most vulnerable, our children," she told the ABC.

"My niece was let down and I know so many other children who have been let down over the years and it's finally been revealed as to why this is the case and it's just not good enough."

The report by former NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb and longtime NT public servant Greg Shanahan found there were extensive failings by the Department of Children and Families before Kumanjayi went missing from an Alice Springs town camp in April, making 45 recommendations.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, was charged with the five-year-old girl's murder in May following a five-day manhunt.

He is yet to enter a plea and will return to the Alice Springs Local Court in December.

Ms Price said the report showed a domestic violence risk assessment had not been carried out for her niece and those who had been noted as "safety people were not safe individuals at all".

"The continued notifications, the lack of process … words sort of escape me as to how much failure existed, which ended up in the situation where I lost my niece," she said.

She also criticised the child protection response of some organisations, who she said had an "ideological approach" to Indigenous affairs "based on this idea that culture is the be all and end all over and above prioritising the safety of vulnerable women and children".

"They would probably have argued that my niece should not be removed and in the end we lost her,"

she said.

"I think the system treats Aboriginal women and vulnerable children, [it] doesn't treat them like Australian citizens, that's for sure, where their human rights and their safety need to be upheld."

In parliament earlier today when she tabled the review, NT Minister for Child Protection Robyn Cahill attributed the lack of progress in child safety to Labor governments who she said "put so-called progressive beliefs ahead of child safety".

"A child's culture matters but it can never come before safety," she said.

Ms Cahill labelled the child protection system as being "in crisis" across the country — a sentiment echoed by Ms Price who has called for a coordinated national approach to child protection.

"I think what the Northern Territory has just been through … every state and territory should go through the same process to ensure that child protection is working right around the country, not just for the benefit of Indigenous children, but for the benefit of all children," Ms Price said.

"The culture of child protection needs to change.

Ms Price said she hadn't yet had the opportunity to go through the report with Kumanjayi Little Baby's other family members, but that "they've all been really wanting to understand more deeply" what had happened.

Ms Cahill said the government accepted all 45 recommendations of the report in full.