NT Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Hollamby reveals the ‘endemic’ of domestic abuse in the Territory

NT Police have called out a ‘disgusting’ spike in domestic violence, with more than 100 Territorians a day becoming the latest suspected victims of abuse.

Matt Hollamby APM Assistant Commissioner from the NT Police talks about the recent road fatality on the Arnhem Highway. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Territory police are reeling after a horror week for domestic violence as the “endemic” of abuse continues to take its toll on victims and the front lines.

On Monday, NT Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Hollamby said it was “alarming” police had responded to 719 domestic violence assaults in just a week, more than 100 incidents a day.

“To assault family members, it’s disgusting,” he said.

Mr Hollamby said this was on the higher end of family violence call outs compared to a typical week, with an average day usually ranging between 60 and 100 incidents.

“Domestic violence is one of those endemic things,” he said.

“There are repeat offenders, and there are also repeat victims.”

Mr Hollamby said the spike in call outs came after a major crackdown on alleged abusers — named Operation Jardine — resulted in the arrest of 80 people on outstanding warrants or ongoing investigations into assaults, rape, deprivation of liberty or breaches of domestic violence orders.

NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage tours the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre (JESCC) to see how triple-0 calls are taken and dispatched to police.

During the landmark coronial inquest into domestic violence, NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage found up to 80 per cent of police time was spent responding to domestic violence in the Territory.

However, Ms Armitage said this was the tip of the iceberg, with less than 10 per cent of violence ever reported to police.

“The rates of under-reporting are likely to be even worse in the Northern Territory, due to the additional challenges of distance, language and cultural barriers in speaking with police, medical professionals, social and other support workers,” Ms Armitage said.

Among 36 recommendations to come from the inquest, Ms Armitage said a co-responder pilot program in Alice Springs needed to be sufficiently funded, police should establish a permanent domestic, family and sexual violence command, and all police should be refreshed on the use of Supportlink, a domestic violence referral service and undergo ‘Prevent, Assist, Respond’ Training.

On Monday Mr Hollamby said support services were available to “break the cycle” of violence, for both victims and their perpetrators.

However the coroner found the domestic violence sector was chronically underfunded, meaning “the sector simply cannot help everyone who needs it”.

“Many of these workers told me of their fear that the one person they were not able to help might be the next person to be killed, or that the woman who is turned away may not ask for help again,” Ms Armitage said.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael White also told the coroner more support services were needed before victims reached the “critical crisis point” where police were needed.

The government has committed to providing an additional $180m to the sector over the next five years.