John Elferink proposed law change in list of ‘tough-on-crime’ measures he hoped could help his chief minister win election

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the Northern Territory

The former Northern Territory minister John Elferink suggested changing legislation so the detention of children was no longer a last resort, despite believing the exact opposite should be the case, to help his chief minister win an election, the royal commission has heard.

Under questioning on Thursday Elferink told the inquiry a “tough-on-crime” approach by government was “electorally attractive” but there was no evidence that heavy sentencing did anything to reduce youth crime and youth recidivism.

Yet a list of “tough-on-crime potential measures” he emailed to Adam Giles’s chief of staff in March 2016 proposed a legislative amendment to “remove the notion that custody for a child is a last resort”.

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He had previously told the royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the NT he believed detention should be a measure of last resort for juveniles, as set out in the Youth Justice Act.

“It’s a bit difficult to align that with that proposition in your email,” noted a commissioner, Margaret White.

“The chief minister said he wanted to go to the next election,” Elferink responded. “He said come together with a list of policies that the CLP can go forward with the particular notion of crime and those sorts of issues in the community.”

Elferink said the list was an “iPhone text” for the chief minister, who had asked for a list of “anything you can think of” before the August election, and he didn’t “necessarily endorse everything that’s on the list”.

The list also included expanding mandatory sentencing and paperless arrests, greater restraint powers in juvenile detention and “shakedown powers” for police.

During cross-examination the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency’s lawyer, Philip Boulton, asked Elferink if he could have included “anything worse” than the “draconian items” he listed.

“There were probably a number of more draconian policies I could have added but the point was I was being asked to provide a brainstorming list, which I did,” he replied.

Unable to recall

Elferink was unable to recall a number of incidents and briefings he was questioned about on Thursday, as well as several reports about conditions inside detention centres.

These included a report on a troubled Western Australian detention centre that formed part of a warning to the then corrections commissioner, Ken Middlebrook, that Don Dale was heading the same way.

Elferink speculated his department chief executives were perhaps seeking to not overburden him, as he had – at peak – 14 portfolios, prompting White to ask if there was a shortage of other possible members who could take some of them.

“With all due respect to the chief minister at the time, he had a political problem in which one of his ministers not only left, but left the party, and he needed someone to carry the load for a period of a couple of weeks,” Elferink replied.

He was stripped of the corrections portfolio in the days after the establishment of the royal commission.

Detention environment ‘disturbing’

Elferink also gave evidence about a meeting with the children’s commissioner, Dr Howard Bath, in 2014, after Don Dale inmates were teargassed in August. Bath provided a draft report and still images of incidents. Elferink and Bath agreed some appeared to show criminal offences and should go to the police.



After the meeting with Bath, Elferink spoke to Middlebrook, who he said had reassured him “those matters were known to him and appropriate steps had been taken”. “Mr Middlebrook said there was no institutionalised violence against children at the time,” he said.

Given that he had differing accounts by two commissioners, Elferink asked Michael Vita to conduct an independent review.

He said Middlebrook had tried very hard to improve the system but there simply wasn’t the budget required to enact what was needed, including a new juvenile facility.

He said he had been “disturbed” by the state of detention when he became minister in 2012, and said Don Dale was dangerous and not fit for purpose. By 2014 he was aware of major infrastructure problems but a bid for $2m from the NT budget to improve the centre was not approved by his cabinet colleagues.

Elferink took Giles through Don Dale “to press upon the chief minister some of the challenges that we faced”.

“The chief minister remained, for lack of a better word, reluctant to acquiesce to the notion that more money should be spent,” he said.

Less than two months later the teargassing occurred.

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He said he had also met “extraordinary” resistance from his department when he tried to link child protection and detention.



Asked what improvements he could point to during his four years as minister, Elferink said: “Flushing toilets in cells, improved schooling … as well as a number of the rehab courses we were doing with the resources we had available.

“To suggest that we weren’t making improvements, that Vita was sometimes being ignored, was wrong.”

He also defended his media appearances in the weeks after the teargassing, when he referred to the detainees as “ratbags” and “the worst of the worst”, saying the boys’ conduct and escapes had demonstrated they were as described.

The commission, including further cross-examination of Elferink, continues.

