The Northern Territory Government has unveiled its domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) Reduction Strategy 2025-2028 and its accompanying Safety Roadmap, one year after Coroner Elisabeth Armitage delivered landmark findings on the killings of four Aboriginal women by their partners.

Released to coincide with the global 16 Days of Activism campaign, the strategy comes as the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) renewed calls this week for urgent reforms to the DFSV system.

On Tuesday, Minister for Prevention of Domestic Violence Robyn Cahill said the plan outlines 45 practical initiatives across prevention, intervention, response and healing.

"Ending violence is everyone's responsibility," Ms Cahill said.

"By sharing and displaying the Roadmap, and by joining in community action, we can all play a role in driving lasting change. Together, we can build a Territory where every person feels safe, respected, and free from fear."

First Nations women are seven times more likely to die from intimate partner homicide than Australian women overall. Of the at least 476 First Nations women killed since 1989, one-third were from the Northern Territory, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Highlighting the previously announced $36 million in annual funding, Ms Cahill said the strategy is about "turning evidence into action, empowering Territorians with the knowledge to recognise violence, seek help, and stand with those affected".

Shaped by Aboriginal organisations, frontline services and people with lived experience, the government says the plan will help communities identify warning signs of violence, know where to seek help, support those at risk, and understand what actions are being taken to build a safer Territory.

This week, AMSANT said Aboriginal women continue to bear the "heaviest and most devastating impacts" of family violence.

"Every woman and child deserves to be safe," Chair Rob McPhee said. "We wouldn't accept this level of violence anywhere else. We must create the conditions that stop it from happening at all."

Judge Armitage's inquest examined the violent deaths of Kumarn Rubuntja, Kumanjayi Haywood, Ngeygo Ragurrk and Miss Yunupingu — four of at least 83 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.

Since the inquest, at least five more Aboriginal women have allegedly been killed by partners in the NT. The Territory has the highest rate of DFSV 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 after the findings, with Ms Cahill arguing Judge Armitage's recommendations were "uninspiring" and failed to hit the mark.

She claimed the coroner was not "brave enough" to make recommendations about Aboriginal culture, despite noting 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".

In response, the NT Bar Association said the Minister's comments were a "bizarre and unwarranted attack" on the coroner, whilst the Criminal Lawyers Association for the NT (CLANT) said it was "appalled" by the response.

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

"It is only the Northern Territory, which experiences the highest rates of domestic violence in the country, that does not have a peak body," Judge Armitage said last year.

On Tuesday, Mr McPhee said "we must collectively hold ourselves accountable".

"This means every organisation, every sector, every partner — including government — playing their part," he said.

"But meaningful change will only happen if Aboriginal-led solutions are at the heart of the response. We are standing together as the ACCO sector, alongside DFSV services in the NT, to drive change collectively."

The roadmap is available online.