The Federal families minister touched down in Alice Springs today announcing a multi-million-dollar pledge to improve family and community safety in Central Australia where rates of domestic violence are the highest in the country. But while advocates welcome the investment, they say it doesn't go far enough to address Central Australia's domestic violence crisis.
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00:00 A region crying out for change.
00:05 And the federal government today says it's answering the call.
00:09 We want to make sure that our responses are community led but they meet the needs of the
00:14 local community.
00:15 $30 million over the next four years has been allocated to strengthening family and community
00:22 safety in Central Australia.
00:24 The money was first pledged in February this year as part of a $250 million support package
00:31 for the region.
00:32 This is not new money, this is just a little bit more detail about something that was announced
00:38 earlier.
00:39 The government says the package will fund initiatives around strong parenting and healthy
00:44 relationships as well as family and domestic violence support.
00:49 But it couldn't specify which organisations would receive the money.
00:53 We are going to be led by community on this.
00:57 Frontline services are urging more clarity, saying core services remain desperately underfunded.
01:04 The emphasis is always on innovate, innovate, innovate but we're not funded to do what we're
01:09 supposed to be doing.
01:10 Anti-violence campaigners in the NT say they welcome any additional investment in the sector
01:16 but they're continuing to call for domestic violence funding to be based on the territory's
01:20 enormous need rather than its small population.
01:24 What our government has done is clearly moved away from population based funding.
01:29 I disagree, I don't think that it's clear at all.
01:31 If that's the case, then how much money is being allocated to the Northern Territory
01:35 for specialist domestic family sexual violence services that is clearly based on need.
01:41 With the highest rates of domestic violence in the country, all sides can agree the Northern
01:46 Territory needs change.
01:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]