The Northern Territory Council of Social Service has called on the Federal Government to commit to a long-term funding model that better reflects the rate of domestic, family and sexual violence in the Northern Territory.
It comes after the federal government pledged to deliver a $10.7 million boost for domestic violence services in NT on top of the funding being provided under the $260 million National Partnership on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses.
NTCOSS executive officer Deborah Di Natale said a one-off Commonwealth investment was welcome, but a long-term funding commitment was needed.
"The problem with one-off funding is that you're not able to do any long-term planning," she said.
"One-off funding doesn't work for the Northern Territory because the Northern Territory has had these issues in place for many years.
"And it is a long-term solution that will get us to where we need to be."
Ms Di Natale said the NT was losing out because the current funding model was based on population.
"What NT needs is a needs-based funding model because you are more likely to experience domestic violence if you live in the Northern Territory than if you live in any other jurisdiction." she said.
"Territorians face the highest rates of domestic, family and sexual violence in the country."
Remote communities also face greater risk of domestic, family and sexual violence within the one-off funding model, Di Natale said.
"In very remote towns there are no services at all," she said.
"This situation leads women who are living in those very remote communities without access to services, to be really at great risk of experiencing domestic violence and a greater risk of not being able to get the services they need when they need it."
Instead, Di Natale said these long-term issues need a long-term solution.
"With long-term funding you can start thinking about the infrastructure that's needed, you can start thinking about early prevention models that work," she said.
"What we need to look at long term is how do we actually educate all our kids in relation to respectful relationships?
"How do we ensure that we have services at the early side of things, which means we can completely eradicated DV in the Northern Territory."
Di Natale said engaging with First Nations communities would help build culturally appropriate responses.
"We have an Aboriginal justice agreement in the Northern Territory, that is a roadmap to create what we're calling law and justice groups, and these law and justice groups are community led," she said.
"And I think this idea that a one size fits all is nonsense, you actually need to have community led approaches and needs will be different depending on where you are."
Federal Families and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said that the Federal Government understood the need for greater funding.
"For the first time the government is developing two five-year Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander action plans to sit alongside the national plan to end violence against women and children, which will be developed and delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," she said.
"It will be the primary mechanism for implementing Closing the Gap Target 13 that by 2031, the rate of all forms of family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children is reduced at least by 50 per cent as progress towards zero.
"We understand the importance of having formal mechanisms in place where Indigenous leaders and communities are listened to, heard and given pathways to work collaboratively with governments so that we can put in place programs that are really going to make a difference on the ground."
Ms Ruston said extending the existing programs for five years would provide funding certainty for services.
