NT attorney-general says bail reform is working despite string of tragedies

When 71-year-old grandfather Linford Feick was fatally stabbed while working at his Friendly Grocer supermarket in Darwin's coastal suburb of Nightcliff, it sent ripples of shock and fear through the tight-knit community.

After vowing to restore community safety, the Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party (CLP) government immediately recalled parliament and passed changes to the Territory's bail laws.

The laws made the protection of the community the paramount consideration for courts when deciding whether to release an alleged offender on bail.

One year on, the CLP claims the reforms are fulfilling their intended purpose of protecting the community from potentially violent, recidivist offenders, with NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby pointing to crime rates and prison numbers as proof of the law's effectiveness.

But a string of recent tragedies and violent unrest in remote areas in recent months have raised doubts for some about whether the changes are working for some of the territory's most vulnerable.

Violence and unrest every month this year

Since January, the Territory has been confronted with a string of deaths and other violent incidents, which have mostly occurred outside of Darwin.

In April, a 26-year-old man was fatally stabbed in the Arnhem Land community of Milingimbi after rising tensions between family groups.

At the time, Independent MLA Yingiya Guyula said Labor and the CLP had ignored calls to address unrest in remote areas, saying both parties had "blood on their hands".

One month later, a five-year-old girl was abducted and murdered on the outskirts of Alice Springs.

The same month, an elderly woman was allegedly raped by a home intruder in Palmerston.

Every month since January, police have issued public alerts about unrest or violence in remote communities including Santa Teresa, Wadeye and Ngukurr.

Speaking to Stateline NT, Ms Boothby acknowledged each of the recent crimes resulting in the deaths of Territorians as "horrendous" and "disgusting", but said on a Territory-wide scale, data showed the tide was turning.

"In the main, if you look across the territory, we've had significant changes," she said.

Prison and crime data evidence of 'huge turnaround', AG says

Under the changes to bail laws introduced last year, a court must be almost certain a person will not reoffend or pose a danger to the community if released.

Ms Boothby said there were positive signs the changes were working.

"We've seen the number of people in prisons expand and we think that's a good thing," she said.

Ms Boothby also pointed to recent data which she said showed a "huge turnaround" in crime rates.

Territory-wide, police statistics show property crime and crimes against the person, such as assaults, are trending down when compared with numbers from last year.

The number of victims in March was also down by 11 per cent when compared with the year before.

But property crime has seen a more noticeable decrease than violent crimes, and sexual assaults are higher than they were a year ago.

Crime rates also vary by region. In Palmerston, property crime in March 2026 was 28 per cent higher than it was the year before, while crime against the person was 22 per cent higher.

Remote communities outside the NT's major urban centres also appear to be unaffected, with crime rates rising and falling repeatedly over the past 12 months.

But Ms Boothby said it was not just data that supported the success of the CLP's reforms.

"It's Territorians living their life every day, feeling like things are changing and that is the most important thing," she said.

Domestic violence and alcohol drive safety concerns

After spending the past two weeks travelling through dozens of NT remote communities, Labor MP and former cabinet minister Chansey Paech said residents had repeatedly expressed concerns about alcohol, domestic violence and a lack of police presence.

"In every community I visited, it would be very rare that they would have a permanent police presence," he said.

The Labor MP accepted the Territory's crime problem had been decades in the making, and conceded the previous Labor government — in office for eight years until 2024 — made snap decisions on crime which had resulted in "unintended consequences". 

"I think the benefit of hindsight always provides you with a clearer perspective on how to do things," he said.

Linford Feick's death bore similarities to another tragedy in Darwin two years earlier — the stabbing death of a young bottle shop worker, Declan Laverty, which sparked snap bail reforms by the then-Labor government.

Mr Paech said his "greatest regret" was not pushing harder for alternatives to custody, and said governments needed to be supporting on-country programs which were having a positive impact and reducing pressure on frontline services.

"We really need more law and justice groups, more community courts operating," he said.

"We don't need to throw all the ideas out.

"We need to look at what works, what hasn't and move forward in that manner."