Northern Territory Police will upgrade charges for a Katherine man a month after a 61-year-old woman died from her injuries following an alleged domestic violence incident. It comes as Central Australia experienced a major spike in domestic and family violence callouts over the weekend, with those at the coalface exhausted and calling for change.
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00:00The small town of Catherine, ground zero of a deepening crisis.
00:06Northern Territory Police today confirming a 68-year-old man in custody will have his
00:11domestic violence assault charges upgraded to murder after his partner's death in Royal
00:17Darwin Hospital.
00:18It's sadness, it's disheartening, it impacts on everyone in the community.
00:24In the NT, the total number of domestic violence homicides since June now stands at eight,
00:30with four in Catherine's Big Rivers region alone.
00:33Police urging the media to do better to highlight the plight of Indigenous women experiencing
00:38violence.
00:40We need to stand up now.
00:41I implore the media to give those people who no longer have a voice, a voice so that Indigenous
00:47people in the Northern Territory, because they're the ones that have been predominantly
00:51victimised in this way, are platformed and understood on the national stage.
00:57The ABC has no name or image of the victim that can be used, but is aware her loss is
01:02causing grief in the community.
01:04The Catherine Women's Information and Legal Service in a statement expressing deep sorrow
01:10and sending condolences to the woman's family and friends.
01:14Further south, police responded to 94 domestic violence call-outs over three days in our
01:20springs last week, and service providers say they're exhausted and struggling to meet demand.
01:26The sector in the Northern Territory, we are overwhelmed.
01:30We do have the highest rates of domestic and family violence across Australia, with the
01:36smallest bucket of money.
01:38When we get to the point where someone has died as a consequence of a domestic violence
01:42incident, it's far too late, they cannot come back.
01:45A landmark inquiry into the deaths of four Indigenous women killed by their partners
01:49in the NT is due to be handed down next week.