"She was a child. She was part of a family. She was part of this nation. She deserved the same safety, dignity and opportunities every Australian child deserves."

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Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has pleaded for change after the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby.

In an emotional speech to Parliament in Canberra during condolence motions, the Northern Territory senator paid tribute to her five-year-old niece, who was found dead in scrubland near Alice Springs on April 30.

A man has been charged with her murder and has yet to enter a plea as communities held vigils for the little girl.

Kumanjayi Little Baby is a name used in line with cultural tradition after the girl's death.

Here in full is what Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told Parliament on Tuesday May 12:

"I don't want to be here right now. I don't want to have to stand in this chamber and deliver a condolence speech for a little girl from my own family.

Sharon Napanangka Granites. I read her name into the history books today in her honour.

She was five years old. She was loved. She should still be here.

I think about my late brother Leonard often. He passed away far too young, before he ever had the chance to grow into adulthood. In our culture, he would have been one of her other fathers. I find myself wondering whether things might have been different if he had lived. Whether he would have protected her. Whether she might still be alive.

The only comfort I can take from these circumstances is believing that she is now with him and with so many members of our family who were taken from us too soon. The only comfort I can take is that they are with our Heavenly Father now.

But there is no escaping the reality of what happened.

My niece's life was taken senselessly, selfishly and horrifically. And the hardest truth of all is that for many in my home town, none of this came as a surprise.

That is the truth that people do not want spoken aloud.

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. Fear of causing offence. Fear of being labelled racist. Fear of speaking honestly about dysfunction, violence, alcohol abuse, neglect and the conditions vulnerable children are growing up in.

That silence is killing our babies.

And when I say "our babies" and "our people", I mean all Australians. 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........

© Canberra Times