The Northern Territory chief minister in charge when teenage inmates were teargassed has attacked the “pathetic” child detention royal commission as being too consumed with “gotcha moments” to achieve meaningful change.



This week, commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda condemned Adam Giles, who established the $54m inquiry alongside prime minister Malcolm Turnbull last year, for his lack of cooperation while giving testimony.

“He completely abrogated his responsibilities as chief minister, and had the gall to sit there and say he was coming in to give evidence to make things better for Aboriginal kids in the NT,” Gooda told the ABC.

White said she was astonished by the stupidity of people in power who ignored lessons from past failings and “seem disinterested in evidence-based solutions”.

Giles hit back at the co-chairs, dismissing their comments as “leftwing hyperbole” and saying their “wishy-washy” final report’s recommendation to shift from detention to rehabilitation would allow young criminals to terrorise communities.

“That was the most pathetic, bureaucratic process I have ever seen. I can already foresee that the royal commission will not improve lives,” he told the Australian on Wednesday. “You ran a second-rate bullshit process.”

The ex-Country Liberals leader said the reason he said “I don’t recall” so many times in the witness box was because he was denied access to the calendars, emails and diaries he used while in office from 2013 to 2016.

He said the “disgraceful and unprofessional” probe targeted individuals in the same way that the ABC’s “biased” Four Corners program did when it sparked the inquiry by airing 2014 footage of boys being spit-hooded and tear gassed at the Don Dale juvenile centre which is due to close.