A warning before we continue: this next story contains discussion and images of Aboriginal women killed by domestic violence. The Northern Territory Coroner will today announce her findings and recommendations after a landmark inquiry into the deaths of four Aboriginal women killed by their partners. The inquests have heard from 95 witnesses and examined the Northern Territory's domestic, family, and sexual violence response systems across government departments and frontline services. Melissa Mackay has been covering the inquiry and reports from Alice Springs Local Court.
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00:00This has been the most significant coronial inquest of its kind in the Northern Territory.
00:09It's a series of inquests into the deaths of four Aboriginal women, Kumanjai Heywood,
00:15Kuman Rabunja, Nyayga Rugurk, and Miss Yunupingu.
00:19Each of these four Aboriginal women were killed by their partners.
00:23Each of their partners had a history of domestic and family violence, and so the coroner has
00:28spent the better part of about a year and a half hearing from, as you said, 95 witnesses
00:35to really deep dive into the Northern Territory's domestic, family, and sexual violence response.
00:41The evidence that she's heard over that time she's described as horrific and heart-wrenching.
00:50We've heard from Northern Territory police who have told the court that responding to
00:55domestic and family violence calls makes up up to 80% of their total workload.
01:01NT Police have recorded a 117% increase in the number of domestic violence call-outs
01:08in the past decade, and they told the coroner that they expect that will continue to increase
01:13by another 73% over the next 10 years, unless something significant changes.
01:21We've also heard evidence about police training being inadequate.
01:25Some changes have already been made in that space.
01:29And there has also been evidence around prevention and education.
01:34The coroner heard that there simply isn't really the education of particular young men
01:39and boys in the Territory around how to have healthy relationships, as well as how to rehabilitate
01:47perpetrators once they have committed domestic violence offences.
01:53We know that the Northern Territory has the highest rates of domestic and family violence
01:58in the country.
01:59Gemma, the rate of intimate partner homicide here in the NT is seven times that of the
02:04national average.
02:05So it has been a really significant inquiry over the past year and a half, and there are
02:10a lot of people anxiously waiting for the coroner's findings today.
02:14Mel, what can we expect from her findings and recommendations?
02:18Well, broadly, the most consistent theme that the coroner has been hearing about over the
02:25past year and a half has been funding.
02:28So I expect that her findings and recommendations will ultimately be for a significant funding
02:34boost to the domestic and family violence sector, both in the response avenue, the police
02:42response frontline services and women's shelters that these victim survivors rely on, but also
02:48in that prevention space.
02:50As I said earlier, we have heard evidence of that lack of rehabilitation and education
02:56and primary prevention.
02:58So we expect that there will be some findings and recommendations in that space as well.
03:04As well as police training, we've heard that some changes have been made, some quite significant
03:09changes have been made to the amount of training that police receive in the domestic and family
03:13violence space.
03:14And so it will be interesting to see what the coroner recommends in that area.
03:20I've been speaking to people who work in the DV sector over the past couple of days as
03:25they've been waiting for these findings to be handed down.
03:28And there is a real sense of hope that there will be change from these findings and recommendations,
03:35but of course also a level of anxiety within the sector around which changes and recommendations
03:40will or could be enacted and accepted.
03:44So a lot of people watching the Northern Territory Coroner's Court very closely today, Gemma.