Hundreds of protesters gathered outside parliament on Wednesday calling for Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro to listen to "the experts" who say the repeals will unfairly affect children and First Nations people.
"We are here today on my grandmother's country once again because children and women are being harmed at the hands of the state," Danggalaba Kulumbirigin Tiwi woman Mililma May said.
"We are here today in mourning, in power, in strength and in defiance of a well oiled machine that is programmed to create environments so women and children are killed.
"There are choices being made every day, every hour, by people in positions of power and by those without power that enable this violence to continue."
Holding signs saying "children will die" members from the opposition and crossbench, paediatricians and justice advocates spoke about the harm the repeals will cause.
During a second day of sittings, Ms Finocchiaro's government put five pieces of legislation forward to be passed on urgency.
They include lowering the age of criminal responsibility, criminalising public drunkenness and posting and boasting, and ram raid legislation.
The suite of repeals also included Declan's Law, a number of amendments to the bail and weapons act named after 20-year-old bottle shop worker Declan Laverty who was murdered in 2023.
Labor attempted to suspend standing orders so the crossbench and opposition could review them before they were passed but the motion was defeated by majority.
The presumption against bail repeal moved by the government is based on figures showing up to 12 per cent of people charged with a crime in 2022/23 were on bail at the time of offending, Ms Finocchiaro said.
Plans to lower the age of criminal responsibility have been criticisedoutside the NT parliament. ((A)manda Parkinson/AAP PHOTOS)
In addition, the laws extend police powers to search and seize weapons, including allowing officers to enter schools and use a metal detector on primary school children.
Her amendments extend the length of time police can search for weapons in public and remove the statutory powers for the NT Ombudsman - the watchdog for the police use of force - to review wanding (the use of metal detectors).
"The Ombudsman already has the power to investigate police conduct of their own motion or upon receiving a complaint, including a power to enter premises and inspect documents, which is applicable to investigations into police contracts," Ms Finocchiaro told parliament.
"The statutory review is an additional unfunded burden on government, which the legislation presently requires, regardless of whether there are any concerns in relation to the police."
Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley then moved to lower the criminal age of responsibility and two new laws which criminalised posting crimes on social media and ram-raids.
Hundreds of protesters called for Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro to listen to "the experts". ((A)manda Parkinson/AAP PHOTOS)
"The Northern Territory will be the first jurisdiction in Australia to introduce a specific ram raid offence … this conduct will more clearly capture and target instances where a person driving a motor vehicle intentionally uses it to cause damage to a property," he said.
Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby also tabled changes to the liquor act preventing anyone drinking within two kilometres of licensed premises and giving police powers to arrest anyone they perceive to be a nuisance drinker or drunk.
The government committed to reintroducing scrutiny committees, as the NT parliament has no upper house, however this included proposing five members per committee, three of them from government.
