Jacinta Price sobbed uncontrollably as she accused child protection authorities of failing her niece Kumanjayi Little Baby in the weeks before her alleged murder.

The Northern Territory senator said avoiding hard conversations about the living conditions of Indigenous children in town camps was costing lives.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been charged with murder and other offences after Kumanjayi Little Baby was found dead in bushland near Alice Springs on April 30.

It was revealed last week that six child protection reports were made about the little girl in the six weeks before she was allegedly abducted and killed.

The reports alleged Kumanjayi Little Baby was living in a dangerous environment, had been neglected and was exposed to domestic violence.

Senator Price said the fact that multiple warnings weren’t acted upon should ‘horrify every single one of us in this chamber and across the world’.

‘For too long in this country, there has been silence around what is happening in too many town camps and remote communities – a silence driven by fear, a fear of causing offence, a fear of being labelled racist, fear of speaking honestly about dysfunction, violence, alcohol abuse, neglect and conditions,’ she said.

‘Vulnerable children are growing up in that silence and it is killing our babies. And when I say our babies, our people, I mean Australians.

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Jacinta Price has accused child protection authorities of failing Kumanjayi Little Baby

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She was embraced by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson following the emotional speech

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Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been charged with murder and other offences after the little girl (pictured) was found dead in bushland near Alice Springs on April 30

‘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.

‘It’s that same ideology that has created a hands off culture within parts of a child protection system, an ideology that too often places cultural sensitivities and political correctness ahead of the safety of children.

‘The same ideology that reveres organisations, bureaucracies and so-called leadership structures, while vulnerable women and children continue to suffer behind closed doors.’

Last week, the NT’s Minister for Child Protection, Robyn Cahill, confirmed that three child protection staff had been stood down and that an external investigation had been launched.

Ms Cahill said she had contacted the department on Monday, April 27 – the day after Kumanjayi Little Baby had been reported missing – to ask if any notifications had been received about her welfare and didn’t get a response until Friday.

The minister has announced plans to Northern Territory Parliament, which will remove some of the emphasis from the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.

It states that if an Aboriginal child is removed from their family, they must be placed with a family member first and only with an non-Indigenous carer as a last resort.

Instead, the legislation will see the emphasis be placed on the safety of the child.

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Senator Price (pictured in the Senate on Tuesday) said she had ‘expected’ there to be child protection notifications prior to the five-year-old’s death

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Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been charged with murder and other offences after Kumanjayi Little Baby was found dead in bushland near Alice Springs on April 30

Senator Price said she had ‘expected’ there to be child protection notifications prior to her niece’s death.

‘I suppose for me I probably expected that there would have been notifications in place given the circumstances surrounding her death, and no doubt, you know, and some of those came from within family as well,’ she said.

‘And I think there were family members that are beside themselves because they knew the dangers she was in already.

‘The worst part is you’re not surprised when you see it – that’s the worst part… again, more needs to be done.’

Lewis is yet to enter a plea to the murder charge.