Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says the case of a West Arnhem man who stabbed his wife three years ago but will be eligible for parole next week "exposes the gap between the government's promise and the way the law still operates in practice".
In 2023, then-56-year-old Dennis Naroldol stabbed his 51-year-old wife in the heart following an altercation outside Darwin's DoubleTree Hilton on April 14.
The victim, who will not be publicly named without her family's permission, managed to walk into the hotel but later died in hospital.
Naroldol was initially charged with murder, however was last week sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court to four years in prison, with a three-year non-parole period, after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Having been in custody since the stabbing, he will be eligible for parole next week.
Senator Price described the outcome as "abhorrent" while pointing to new Northern Territory laws which increased the non-parole period for domestic violence murder to 25 years, arguing, "If the system is still producing outcomes like this, the work is not done".
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In February, Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby cited 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, an outcome Ms Boothby said 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 a social media post, Senator Price said: "Territorians will look at this case and ask the same question."
"This case exposes the gap between the government's promise and the way the law still operates in practice," she said.
"Their changes were sold as a crackdown, but they only addressed murder. They did not address the cases that are ultimately resolved as manslaughter rather than murder, even where the victim has been killed by an intimate partner."
Presiding of the case, Justice Stephen Southwood said Naroldol had a "long history" of domestic violence offences against his wife. The judge said he "showed no concern for the victim, walking away into the park and lying down" after stabbing her with a knife he had earlier hidden in his shorts.
Justice Southwood noted Naroldol had chronically abused alcohol for a decade before his wife's death, breached multiple court orders and had been convicted of assault in 2020.
The Territory has the highest rate of domestic violence in the country, 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.
Having been vocal in her support for the NT's new laws, Senator Price said the recent case showed "sentencing reform alone is not enough".
"If consequences do not match the seriousness of the crime, they do nothing to deter it," she argued. "If the system is still producing outcomes like this, the work is not done."
Senator Price argued Territorians deserved laws and sentencing which reflect the gravity of serious offending and protect victims.
"As I have said before, stronger sentencing must operate alongside better evidence capture, victim notification, high-risk offender management and parole settings that put safety first," she said.
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