Matt Cunningham column: Minister Amanda Rishworth accuses NT Government of blame shifting

The Territory Government’s calls for needs-based funding to address the crisis in domestic and family violence has been met with more than a few raised eyebrows, writes Matt Cunningham.

Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

The Territory Government’s calls for needs-based funding to address the crisis in domestic and family violence has been met with more than a few raised eyebrows.

It’s not that more funding in this area isn’t desperately needed. Service providers are overwhelmed. Shelters are being forced to turn away vulnerable women. Rates of violence against women have doubled in a decade, and police expect the situation to get worse long before it gets better.

But the NT Government’s primary solution – that it needs more money from the Commonwealth – is being met with a healthy dose of scepticism. This is because there are serious questions about how the NT Government spends the billions of dollars it already receives from the Commonwealth on the basis of need.

The NT receives much of its federal funding from the Commonwealth Grants Commission through the distribution of funds obtained from the Goods and Services Tax. The commission redistributes the funds collected by taking into account factors including disadvantage, indigeneity and the difficulty delivering services in remote areas. As a consequence, the Northern Territory receives a far bigger share than any other state or Territory. According to the commission’s 2022 report, the Territory’s GST relativity – the amount of funding it receives for every dollar contributed – was 4.8. This was more than double the next highest jurisdiction, Tasmania (1.9), and more than 10 times the relative share of Western Australia (0.41).

Nightcliff police station shuts early

Despite this funding being distributed on the basis of need, it comes with no strings attached. This had led to consistent criticism the NT Government spends this money of shiny new things to win votes in Darwin and Palmerston, at the expense of services and infrastructure in remote areas. When you consider developments like the new Nightcliff Police Station – still only open during business hours – or the $160 million Tiger Brennan Drive overpass, it’s difficult to argue otherwise. The Territory Government has also greatly increased the size of its public service, creating a serious structural deficiency for its budget. Meanwhile, the ongoing coronial inquest into the deaths of four Aboriginal women has heard the NT Government rejected proposals from government agencies for $180 million over five years to fund women’s shelters, behaviour change programs and policy reform. Instead it offered $20 million over two years.

It appears, however, that the new federal Labor government is finally willing to call the NT’s bluff. According to a report in this week’s NT News, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth has accused the NT Government of “blame shifting” over its calls for more Commonwealth funding to address our domestic violence crisis. “Any suggestion the Commonwealth is not responding to the situation in the NT does not acknowledge the commitments we have made and serves to play politics and indulge in blame-shifting, when all governments should be focused on working together,” she said.

Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour also sounded a warning last month. “You need to be after the big money tree that’s the Commonwealth and following that through to the Northern Territory, because we need to have a look at where that money is going and how the Northern Territory Government is spending it,” she said. “I think the federal government, post this referendum, needs to have a look at what is being put into remote Aboriginal communities, how do we look at where that funding is going, and we can do that because the funding starts with the Commonwealth.”

There are signs the Commonwealth is already taking a different approach to how it sends funding to the Territory. On Tuesday, Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney was in Darwin to announce $1.78 million of commonwealth money for night patrols. The funding was delivered directly to the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation, bypassing the NT Government. The Commonwealth is taking a similar approach to the $250 million the Prime Minister promised for Alice Springs in January.

Crying poor to Canberra has long been a favourite sport for Territory governments. But there are signs this game might finally be up.

Matt Cunningham has worked as a journalist in the Northern Territory for more than 12 years. He is a former editor of the Northern Territory News. Since 2016 Matt has been the Darwin Bureau Chief and Northern Australia Correspondent for Sky News.