Sweeping changes have been recommended for the Northern Territory's child protection system after a review found workers repeatedly failed to adequately assess safety threats to Kumanjayi Little Baby's family.
The independent review was launched after Kumanjayi Little Baby - as she is known for cultural reasons - was allegedly abducted from an Alice Springs town camp house and murdered in April.
An interim report on the probe led by former NSW police commissioner Karen Webb and senior public servant Greg Shanahan was tabled on Tuesday, the same day controversial NT child protection laws were introduced.
"The review found that the key issue in the (Kumanjayi Little Baby) matter was ... the timeliness and effectiveness with which risk was identified, assessed and responded to," the report said.
"Despite repeated indicators of domestic and family violence, the cumulative impact of the violence and its implications for the child's safety were not adequately recognised and protective responses were not pursued in a timely manner."
Documents identified the presence of domestic violence in every referral the department received, the review found.
However a domestic and family violence risk assessment was never done.
It limited the NT Department of Children and Families' ability to identify and assess the cumulative impact of multiple reports.
As a result, an ongoing pattern of violence in the children's lives and family environment was not fully recognised.
The report found Kumanjayi Little Baby's mother was effectively left to protect her children while experiencing domestic violence.
The department had not adequately identified the risks posed by the perpetrator's behaviour, or the impact of that violence on the children, and did not respond to threats with appropriate urgency, the report said.
The body of Kumanjayi Little Baby was found five days after she was allegedly abducted from Alice Springs' Old Timers camp.
Jefferson Lewis, a man unknown to her, has been charged with her murder and is awaiting trial.
Operational delays were driven by high workloads and capacity issues, including retention and recruitment challenges in remote areas, the review said.
Delays were also a function of the department's allocation processes, competing priorities and decision-making.
The review made seven recommendations aimed at strengthening responses to children at risk, particularly in homes affected by domestic and family violence, and shoring up the resources and capacity of the system meant to keep them safe.
Child protection reforms introduced by the NT government have been criticised for placing less emphasis on maintaining cultural connection and potentially making it easier for Aboriginal kids to be permanently placed with non-Indigenous carers.
A child's ethnic or cultural background will not be a valid reason to leave them in an unsafe situation under the reforms, which rates a youth's safety as the highest priority.
Catherine Liddle, the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care chief executive, questioned the NT reforms in light of the child protection report.
"The tragedy that prompted this review exposed failures inside the child protection system, not failures of the legislation protecting children's rights or their connection to family and culture," she said.
"Yet those are the protections the government has chosen to weaken."
Critics say the reforms risked weakening hard‑won safeguards for First Nations children and could lead to more removals.
Children's ministers of every state and territory except the NT and Queensland joined federal Families Minister Tanya Plibersek in releasing a joint statement in support of the Aboriginal child placement principle.
National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children Sue-Anne Hunter said the principle, introduced after the Bringing Them Home report into the Stolen Generations, must be central to children's safety.
She feared if the NT rolled protections back, other jurisdictions would follow.
"We will have another Stolen Generation in this country," she told ABC Radio.
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