Note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned this report includes the name of an Indigenous person who has died.

Three Northern Territory's child protection department staff members have been stood down as the NT's child protection minister, Robyn Cahill, launches an investigation into the events leading up to the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby in Mparntwe / Alice Springs.

The five-year-old girl's body was found in the Todd River bed last Thursday afternoon, days after she was reported missing from the Old Timers town camp.

47-year-old Jefferson Lewis, who was seen holding hands with the girl shortly before she was reported missing, has been charged with her murder and other offences.

The Australian has reported six notifications about Kumanjayi Little Baby's welfare were made to the NT child protection department in the six weeks before her disappearance.

National Indigenous Times understands that these notifications were in regards to the girl's mother being at risk of domestic violence.

The Australian said the department failed to launch an investigation into the notifications.

Ms Cahill told Sky News she had asked the department for information about their interactions with the girl and her family on Monday, April 27, after she disappeared, and did not receive a briefing until last Friday, when she was told about the notifications.

"Three people have been stood down from their positions as of today," Ms Cahill told the broadcaster.

"I am calling for an independent investigation from someone who is removed from the existing situation so we can have total accuracy and be sure that we are getting the information that we need to get to understand how this failure could happen."

The minister has vowed to reform the Territory's child protection system.

The Northern Territory government is expected to introduce long-planned changes to child protection legislation to the Parliament next week.

More than 90 per cent of children in care in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal. Current laws provide protections for Aboriginal children in care, including placing them with family or kin and close to Country, however a "special and exceptional circumstance" provision would be added under draft legislation floated more than one year ago.

In documents circulated to the child protection sector in January 2025, NT Department of Children and Families drafting instructions state: "A court has discretion to not uphold the principle in special/exceptional circumstances..." if it is believed doing so would adversely affect the child.

The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle was developed to provide nationally accepted standards for Indigenous children in care in response to a series of reports over the previous three decades, including the 1997 Bringing Them Home Report.