The Four Corners program exposed footage of a teenage boy strapped to a mechanical chair in an Alice Springs prison. Credit:ABC Four Corners During an appearance on the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night, Professor Triggs called for an inquiry into the incarceration of children in the Northern Territory. "We need a proper inquiry," she said. "If one of us were to have been found to have treated our children in this way we would probably be charged with a criminal offence and the children taken away from us. "I certainly think we need some kind of government-based independent commission, whether it's a full royal commission or not I don't know," Professor Triggs said. Royal Commission possible

Mr Giles said he was "shocked and disgusted" by the revelations and said he has asked the Commissioner of NT Police to consider if the actions were used in accordance with the powers afforded to custodial officers. Officers restrain a youth detainee in the Northern Territory in 2010. Credit:ABC Four Corners "I have indicated to the Commissioner that if police were to form a view that any law has been broken then the government and the community would expect that such matters be pursued rigorously. Mr Giles said he has sought advice on establishing a royal commission and will work with the Opposition Leader to ensure a judicial inquiry takes place. President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, on the ABC's Q&A program on Monday. Credit:ABC Q&A

"I hope the process can begin prior to the caretaker period for the August 27 election commencing, however I will continue to work with the Opposition Leader to make sure such an inquiry happens." There was bipartisan condemnation in response to the program. Former Labor Indigenous senator Nova Peris said "I visited ‪‎Don Dale‬ [the youth detention centre in Berrimah, near Darwin, where the six children held in isolation were allegedly gassed] and saw first hand how recidivism has become an epidemic. No rehab programs for these children, the NT juvenile justice system is disgraceful." The federal Liberal and Indigenous MP Ken Wyatt said on Twitter: "I am angry, stunned and ashamed that this is happening in our Country and those responsible must be held accountable.

NT government has 'failed to deal with systemic issues' Amnesty International has described the abuses carried out against children as shown in the Four Corners program as a violation of both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention Against Torture. Julian Cleary, Indigenous rights campaigner at Amnesty International Australia, called for an end to the systemic abuse of children in youth detention. "Watching the program was harrowing. To see a crying, distressed child seized by his neck, forced to the ground, manhandled, stripped naked by three grown men and left naked in a cell is just sickening," he said. "The footage of guards laughing at a child being tear-gassed and in distress defies belief.

"Amnesty International has repeatedly raised concerns of abuse of children being held in youth detention centres in the Northern Territory. "As this program shows, these are not isolated incidents. The NT government has failed to deal with systemic issues with the treatment of children in its youth detention system," Mr Cleary said. The Red Cross has urged the federal government to overhaul the national justice system. Kerry McGrath, Red Cross's community services director, said research has shown that incarcerating young people for non-violent and non-serious crimes is detrimental for the individual and makes it harder for them to reintegrate into society. "The justice system needs urgent review, both for the safety of children in detention, but also the long-term safety of our communities," she said.

Prime minister urged to intervene During the Four Corners program, barrister John Lawrence called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to intervene. "It has to stop. How can any country that claims to be civilised have a system of juvenile detention which includes what we've just described here? It's just untenable," he said on Four Corners. Human rights lawyer Ruth Barson described prison staff's behaviour as "utterly inexcusable" and wants the Don Dale juvenile detention centre closed. "I think it's unequivocally a breach of the Convention Against Torture and Mistreatment, and a breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child," she said.

NT Correctional Services Minister John Elferrink said he had not seen many of the videos, including one where guards were saying "I'll pulverise the f---er" as a young man in isolation was banging at windows. "That demonstrates a lack of training," Mr Elferrink told Four Corners. "When matters come to me I make sure they're investigated." Since 2014 the government has extended staff training from four days to eight weeks. NT Chief Minister Adam Giles told reporters: "Nobody wants to see our young people in jail, but the fact remains there are some young people who cause crime in our streets, they smash up cars, they break into houses, they assault people ... so unfortunately, we have to lock juveniles up."

The NT has the highest rate of youth detention in Australia, and 95 per cent of detainees are Aboriginal. The footage comes almost 25 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and follows a damning report by the Northern Territory's then children's commissioner Howard Bath, which called for an overhaul of staff training and recruitment in youth detention, following months of tension and unrest, and repeated escapes at the Don Dale youth detention facility in late 2014. Loading But that report was rubbished by the former commissioner for corrections, Ken Middlebook, who defended the officers' actions, saying the report was inaccurate, "shallow" and "one-sided". with AAP