NT Police prepare for 20% spike in domestic violence call outs over New Year’s festivities

NT Police prepare for a 20 per cent spike in domestic violence call outs as the rest of the Territory celebrates the start of 2025.

NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy and Attorney General Marie-Clare Boothby on December 31, 2024. Picture: Zizi Averill.

Northern Territory cops warn that behind the cover of New Year’s festivities is one of the most dangerous nights of the year for domestic abuse survivors.

On Tuesday, NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said New Year’s Eve was expected to be the busiest 24-hour period for domestic violence reports compared to the past 12-months.

Mr Murphy said on average police were called to 100 reported family violence incidents a day, but Wednesday could see abuse call-outs increase by up to 20 per cent.

“Sadly it’s repetitive in nature and we see the same increase every year,” he said.

“It’s people who are at home together, spending a lot more time together and drinking a lot more, family visiting and tensions fray.”

NT Police said in 2024 there were 42,000 occurrences of domestic and family violence, 4000 more call-outs than the previous year and almost three times the rate of abuse from 2010.

Commander Brendan Muldoon said a huge proportion of frontline police work was directly related to domestic and family violence, while abuse was a known catalyst for offences like property crime and anti-social behaviour.

“A seismic shift needs to occur within our community to combat this epidemic,” Mr Muldoon said.

“If you see violence occurring it must be called out.”

Northern Territory Police southern commander James Gray-Spence out the front of Alice Springs police station on December 31, 2024. Picture: Gera Kazakov

NT Police Southern Commander James Gray-Spence said “New Year’s Eve will be no different” when it comes to his frontline officers responding to the chronically high levels of domestic violence.

“What we have seen is domestic violence is a high proportion of the events in Alice Springs that our frontline officers respond to every evening,” he said.

“So if we get those domestic violence incidents, we’ll be responding to them in due course.”

The latest NT Police statistics revealed there were 623 domestic violence assaults in October alone, with Alice Springs cops called to 130 incidents, 121 assaults in Darwin, 67 in Katherine, 52 in Palmerston, 39 in Tennant Creek and six in Nhulunbuy.

Over that same period there were 208 domestic violence assaults in areas outside the major urban areas.

In the wake of Australia’s largest ever coronial inquest into domestic violence and ‘tough on crime’ legislative reforms, Mr Murphy said fundamentally addressing abuse came down to everyone “being a good human and don’t hurt each other”.

Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby said the government was still looking at the rollout of a promised $180m over five years to address domestic violence, despite urgent calls from NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage for the funding to align with the already established action plan.