Kumanjayi Little Baby's family were forced to leave home community: MP says

In an exclusive interview with Stateline NT, Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour has told the ABC Kumanjayi Little Baby's family was forced to leave their remote community to access specialist support services.

The federal government's Special Envoy for Remote Communities has requested an audit of Commonwealth Indigenous spending in the NT.

Ms Scrymgour says more vulnerable families are at risk of urban drift because of a lack of services in remote communities.

The mother of a five-year-old girl who was allegedly murdered in Alice Springs earlier this year had been living in insecure housing so she could access specialist support for the child, the federal member for the region has told the ABC.

The Gurindji-Warlpiri girl, referred to since her death as Kumanjayi Little Baby for cultural reasons, disappeared from the Old Timers/Ilyperenye town camp in Alice Springs in April.

Her body was found days later, about five kilometres from the camp, after a large-scale police search operation involving hundreds of volunteers.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been arrested and charged with the girl's murder as well as two other offences that cannot be reported for legal reasons.

Marion Scrymgour says Kumanjayi Little Baby's family was "forced to come and live in Alice Springs" in order to access services she needed. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)

Speaking to Stateline NT, the federal government's Special Envoy for Remote Communities and Member for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, said Kumanjayi's families hailed from the desert communities of Kalkarindji and Yuendumu, deep in the NT outback.

Ms Scrymgour said the family was in town to get help for the five-year-old, who had special needs, and was visiting the town camp on the night she went missing.

"The mother was forced to come and live in Alice Springs because the specialist services that that little one needed weren't available in her remote community," she said.

The family's story of having to leave their remote community to access medical help in town — with no guarantee of secure accommodation when they arrived — is a common occurrence in the Northern Territory, where the homelessness rate is 12 times the national average.

Marion Scrymgour spoke with Stateline NT following the alleged murder of Kumanjayi Little Baby in April. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)

Ms Scrymgour helped coordinate a meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Kumanjayi's family in May.

Mr Albanese told reporters after the meeting that governments needed to do "much better" to improve housing in the NT, citing federal Labor's investme