Coalition Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price breaks down in parliament over Kumanjayi Little Baby tragic death

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story contains the image of a deceased person.

“I don’t want to be here right now, having to stand in this room to give a condolence speech for a little girl in my family,” she said.

Watch the video above.

‘She was loved. She should still be here.”

The Northern Territory senator said the death of her five-year-old niece had devastated her family, but the circumstances surrounding the tragedy were familiar to many people in Central Australia.

“And the hardest truth is that none of this came as a surprise to many in my hometown. But the truth is, people don’t want to say this out loud,” Senator Price told the House.

In her speech, she said governments and institutions are avoiding difficult conversations about violence, neglect and alcohol abuse in urban camps and remote communities.

“For too long there has been silence in this country around what is happening in too many urban camps and remote communities – a silence driven by fear, the fear of offending, the fear of being labeled a racist,” she said.

“Vulnerable children are growing up in that silence, and it’s killing our babies.”

Senator Price also criticized what she described as a ‘hands-off culture’ within parts of the child protection system, claiming that ideology and political sensitivities had been prioritized over child welfare.

“My niece was a little Australian girl, yet there is an ideology in this country that has deliberately encouraged people to treat children like her differently because of her racial heritage,” she said.

“It is that same ideology that has created a ‘hands-off’ culture within parts of a child protection system.”

Her speech came as the Northern Territory government announced an independent review of the territory’s child protection system in response to the alleged murder of the five-year-old.

Robyn Cahill said the review would examine the system “from top to bottom”, including legislation, staffing, resources and workplace culture.

“Every Territory child deserves to be safe, that is non-negotiable,” Cahill said.

“We need to get to the bottom of what’s broken and what needs to change.”

The review’s full terms of reference will be released next week.

The government has also confirmed that three child protection workers have been fired while investigators investigate the events leading to the discovery of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s body.

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