Aboriginal people are "homeless on our own country", Senator Lidia Thorpe has told a housing conference in Darwin, as she labelled the current NT Government the "most racist" she has seen in her lifetime.
Speaking at the 2026 Aboriginal Housing and Homelands Conference on Larrakia Country, Senator Thorpe criticised the Northern Territory Government's proposed changes to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP).
"They are robbing our children of their birthright; that is genocide," she said.
The Victorian senator, whose mother played a key role in the 1997 Bringing Them Home report, noted only 17 per cent of Indigenous children placed in child protection remain connected to culture and kin — the lowest rate in the nation.
"We know the trauma our families experience from the colonial systems," she said.
The CLP government has introduced a number of controversial legislative amendments since coming to power in 2024, including lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 and introducing stricter bail laws.
The changes have coincided with a sharp rise in incarceration rates, with more than one per cent of the Territory's population now in custody — almost 90 per cent of them Indigenous.
"The Northern Territory government is one of the worst," Senator Thorpe said. "It's the most racist government I've seen in my lifetime."
Proposed amendments to the NT Youth Justice Act would allow police to hold young people for up to 48 hours and question them without an adult present if it is "in relation to a serious and urgent matter concerning public safety".
Senator Thorpe said the proposal contravened Australia's human rights obligations.
"This is not youth justice," she said. "We've got to change the name. Where's the justice in youth justice?"
"All of these changes are intentionally harming us. Deliberately inflicting...conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction — in whole or in part — is another one of the five acts of genocide."
Addressing housing, Senator Thorpe said overcrowded, insecure and unsafe housing was driving many of the issues experienced by First Nations communities, including disease, school absenteeism and limited employment opportunities.
Last month, public housing tenants from the remote Northern Territory Aboriginal community of Papunya/Warumpi, about 240 kilometres northwest of Mparntwe/Alice Springs, launched legal action against the Territory government, alleging it had "failed" to provide safe housing during periods of extreme heat.
While the latest budget included $6 million over three years for a new First Nations housing peak body, Senator Thorpe argued organisations such as Aboriginal Housing NT already existed and were "already presenting solutions" but were too often ignored.
"Why can't governments just act on what you say is needed?" she asked.
"Governments on all levels still give us rations and band-aids, without ever addressing the root cause, or supporting and investing in grassroots, self-determined solutions."
In 2024, the federal and NT governments announced a joint 10-year, $4 billion investment in remote housing, with more than 300 homes now completed across remote First Nations communities and town camps in the Territory.
The third funding round of the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) has also committed $600 million to projects aimed at improving housing outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Senator Thorpe also criticised the Closing the Gap agreement, arguing it had done "nothing" for Indigenous people.
"A few jobs; economic development — but how do you get there if you don't have a home?" she asked.
"We can't continue to rely on their promises and their rations. We have to be stronger; we have to stand up."
Most governments implement policies "they know will take" Closing the Gap targets backwards, Senator Thorpe added, noting there were no funding accountability measures built into the agreement.
