Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names and images of Indigenous people who have died.

The Northern Territory Government will introduce life sentences for people convicted of domestic violence (DV) murder, which it says will be the strongest penalties in the country.

Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby will introduce the reforms this week, with the changes to impose a mandatory minimum non-parole period of 25 years' imprisonment — up from 20 years — for the murder of a current or former partner.

The Territory has the highest rate of domestic violence nationally, with Aboriginal women accounting for 89 per cent of all victims. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, at least 476 First Nations women have been killed since 1989, with one-third of those deaths occurring in the Northern Territory.

Ms Boothby said the problem of domestic violence "only got worse" under the former Labor government and argued the new laws would close loopholes that allow offenders to be charged with lesser offences, such as manslaughter. She did not outline how this would be achieved.

"The Territory's weak sentencing laws risk undermining the hard work of police. Meanwhile, the crisis of women losing their lives in acts of domestic violence remains exhaustive, unforgivable, and avoidable. It's time our sentencing laws reflect that," she said.

Opposition leader Selena Uibo said Labor would closely examine the reforms and consult with the domestic violence sector. However, the government holds enough seats in the unicameral parliament to pass legislation without the opposition's support.

"We understand at this point that the DV sector has not been properly consulted, so we'll go out and do that work because the government fails to do the very, very simple thing of talking to the experts," Ms Uibo said, as reported by NT News.

In response to the reforms, advocacy group Justice Not Jails said mandatory sentencing would not address the underlying causes and instead called for long-term solutions.

"These new laws are going to see more Aboriginal women detained in horrific conditions inside of police watch houses and prison cells," JNJ spokesperson and North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) co-founder, Natalie Hunter, said.

"This government appears not to be interested in supporting women. It is locking us up and locking up our children. Where is the support for housing, for mental health, for substance abuse problems, for self-determination? Locking people up and throwing away the key is no solution."

The Attorney-General pointed to the 2016 killing of a 34-year-old Aboriginal woman, who was attacked in broad daylight in a Nightcliff park by her partner, Jessie Wilson.

Although Wilson was initially charged with murder, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of dangerous act causing death and was sentenced to four years and six months' jail, suspended with strict conditions after three years.

Ms Boothby said that sentence was "not good enough".

"Our new legislation is a real deterrent," she said. "If you take your partner's life in the Territory, you will spend the rest of yours in prison. There will be no discounts, no excuses, and no second chances."

In 2024, Coroner Elisabeth Armitage delivered landmark findings into the violent killings of Kumarn Rubuntja, Kumanjayi Haywood, Ngeygo Ragurrk and Miss Yunupingu — four of at least 85 Indigenous women killed by partners in the NT since 2000. All had previously reported domestic violence to police.

She described their deaths as part of a "plague" of domestic violence homicides contributing to a "national shame", and issued 35 recommendations to address the crisis. Judge Armitage stressed the women were not invisible to the system but had been catastrophically failed by it.

The NT Government said it would fully support 21 of the coroner's recommendations, accept 11 in principle, and reject three; including the creation of a DFSV peak body. The NT remains the only Australian jurisdiction without one.

Since the inquest, at least five more Aboriginal women have allegedly been killed by partners in the NT. The Territory also records the highest rate of domestic, family and sexual violence in the world, with 74 per cent of hospitalisations for Indigenous people due to assault linked to family violence.

The Territory government released its response eight months later, with NT Domestic Violence Prevention Minister Robyn Cahill saying Judge Armitage's findings were "uninspiring" and failed to hit the mark.

The Minister argued the coroner was not "brave enough" to make recommendations about Aboriginal culture, despite findings in the report about cultural pressure being used as coercive control. She said addressing this could have helped "to empower communities to take a stand on this very sensitive and challenging issue".

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