he Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) has released a new report card assessing progress against the 35 recommendations made by NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage in 2025 following the landmark inquest into the domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) related deaths of four Aboriginal women.
AMSANT says the purpose of the report is to strengthen accountability, prioritise progress and support a coordinated Territory-wide response to a crisis that leaders across the NT agree is urgent and disproportionately affecting Aboriginal women and children.
The NT has the highest rate of DFSV in the world, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women face intimate partner homicide at seven times the rate of all Australian women nationally. NT Police forecast a 73% increase in DFSV reports over the next decade.
'DFSV is one of the most critical issues facing the Northern Territory, and Aboriginal women continue to bear the most devastating impacts,' AMSANT Chair Rob McPhee said.
'We agree this must be a priority, and this resource is one part of making sure our collective commitments to addressing this crisis translate into real, measurable progress on the ground.'
The report card compares the Coroner's 35 recommendations with the Northern Territory Government's subsequent response and the DFSV strategy 2025–2028, using only publicly available information. It finds:
- 12 recommendations are not included in the strategy
- 16 are only partially aligned
- none of the 35 are fully measurable within the strategy's monitoring framework
- just 17% of the overall assessment is rated green.
AMSANT says this does not diminish the importance of the strategy but highlights a gap in transparency and measurement that must be addressed if reform is to lead to safer outcomes.
'These recommendations arose from the deaths of Miss Yunupingu, Ngeygo Ragurk, Kumarn Rubuntja and Kumanjayi Haywood. The Coroner made clear that these women were not invisible to the system, yet the system failed them. We all share responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen again,' Mr McPhee said.
'This report card is also a practical resource for the whole sector—community organisations, services and governments—to track progress together and share accountability for change.'
A key finding of the report card is that many recommendations focused on Aboriginal community-led solutions, cultural authority and long-term system reform are either absent or not measurable within the strategy's program logic and data framework.
AMSANT says accountability mechanisms are essential to ensure progress can be tracked and understood by communities.
'If we can't measure whether reforms are improving safety, reducing violence or addressing root causes, we can't honestly say we are turning the tide,' Mr McPhee said.
