A damning report into the Northern Territory's child protection department, tabled in parliament on Tuesday, found "extensive failings" in the lead-up to the alleged murder of a five-year-old girl in an outback town.
Kumanjayi Little Baby's body was found five days after she was allegedly abducted from Alice Springs' Old Timers camp in April, sparking widespread outrage across Australia.
Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been charged with her murder and is awaiting trial.
The Northern Territory government commissioned an independent review of its child protection department by former NSW police chief Karen Webb and longtime public servant Greg Shanahan.
The review found child protection officers repeatedly failed to adequately assess safety threats to the girl and her family.
The NT government has accepted the review's 45 recommendations to "reset" the department.
But Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Service (NAAFLS) chief executive Cindy Torrens said a child protection system was "not a silo" that could be reformed in isolation.
"It is an intersection of housing, justice, education, social services and health," she said.
Sue-Anne Hunter, the National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children, told AAP she agreed with most of the report's recommendations.
But she said it was important not to mistake poverty for child neglect, and to assist families out of poverty.
"I feel it's a bit victim-blaming of the mother without supporting her," she said.
Speaking to reporters in Darwin on Wednesday, Ms Webb highlighted the missed calls for help in the Little Baby case and "the lack of appreciation for the increasing risk to the child in that family situation".
She was confident the report recommendations would be implemented and would provide a practical path forward for the department to make significant change.
"There really needs to be a better appreciation of domestic and family violence being a risk in itself to a child, whether they're just present or whether they're involved physically in an altercation," Ms Webb said.
"Any child that has to bear witness to violence in the home, it has to be damaging."
The department received 14 notifications over six years about Kumanjayi Little Baby's exposure to domestic and family violence, largely involving her father.
A domestic and family violence risk assessment was never conducted.
Asked whether similar tragedies could be prevented, Mr Shanahan said there would always be risks.
"You don't live with them 24/7. You can't protect them 24/7,'' he told reporters.
"But what you can do is put in place mechanisms and methods and responses which will minimise the chances of that occurring."
Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told ABC News the "culture of child protection" in Australia needed to change after the failings of the NT's child protection system were exposed.
She criticised an "ideological approach" to Indigenous affairs "based on this idea that culture is the be-all and end-all over and above prioritising the safety of vulnerable women and children".
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