A five-year-old boy from an unnamed remote community was allegedly raped by a 19-year-old male relative, with the teen scheduled to appear in Darwin Local Court today, NT Police said.

The incident reportedly occurred on Tuesday February 4, with police arresting the man the following day.

He has been charged with sexual intercourse with a child under 10.

The police made the incident public on Friday afternoon, shortly after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Alice Springs to announce $843 million in funding for remote communities across the Northern Territory.

The Australian reported over the weekend that the latest rape of a child sparked calls from child safety advocates for greater public disclosure of child sexual abuse.

Child abuse prevention educator Holly-ann Martin told the national broadsheet there was currently an “epidemic” of child sexual abuse across the country, with a large portion of children in remote communities “exhibiting harmful sexual behaviours”.

She said she had seen children as young as five exposed to pornographic material who were then acting on what they saw on other children.

“We need to shine a light on it so we can protect children,” Ms Martin said. “If we keep saying ‘nothing to see here’, then children aren’t being protected.

“The government has just announced today all this money for the Northern Territory. There’s money for women, (but) where is the money for abuse prevention for children?”

Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has committed to establishing a royal commission into child sexual abuse in remote communities if elected at the upcoming federal election, stating it was “a priority for us” and would occur within the first 10 days of the Coalition taking government.

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro told ABC last week she had not received specific report from police about Indigenous child sexual abuse in the NT.

“…It has certainly not been put to me that this is where we need to be spending our time and energy,” she said. “Does it happen, absolutely. Is it abhorrent, absolutely. Does it need to be squashed, absolutely. So I’m happy for the feds to do what they’ve got to do.”

National peak body for Indigenous children, SNAICC, told the NT News Mr Dutton should not be “demonising” Aboriginal people for his election campaign and called for a royal commission into the sexual abuse of all Australian children.

The 2007 Little Children are Sacred inquiry into the sexual abuse of Aboriginal children in the NT triggered the federal NT Intervention.