Prime minister says all Australians would have been ‘deeply shocked’ by footage aired of treatment of teenagers on the ABC’s Four Corners program

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Malcolm Turnbull has announced a royal commission following the airing of shocking footage showing the treatment of children at the old Don Dale detention facility in Berrimah, outside Darwin.

The prime minister told ABC radio that like all Australians he was “deeply shocked ... and appalled” at the graphic footage of abuse at the centre, shown by the Four Corners program on Monday.

Four Corners showed shocking vision of instances of apparent abuse of teenage detainees and examined long running issues and instances of mistreatment in the Northern Territory youth justice system. CCTV footage showed the restraint and spit-hooding of one youth, as well as another being stripped and physically held down by guards on more than one occasion.

Turnbull said there was “no question” about the mistreatment of young people as recently as 2014.

He said the Don Dale centre had to be examined specifically but the royal commission would also consider “whether there is a culture that spreads across the detention system in the Northern Territory, whether it was specific to that centre”.

“The important thing is to get to the bottom of what happened at Don Dale, and there may be other matters connected to that to be looked into.”

Asked whether the royal commission would consider the Northern Territory justice system generally, Turnbull said inquiries needed a “clear focus so you get the answers to the specific problem”.

The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, played down the prospect of a broader inquiry, noting “the wider you make it, the longer it takes”.

“We want this to get moving as quickly as possible, to get to a conclusion as quickly as possible. We don’t want this issue to be investigated for years.”

Asked what Nigel Scullion – a Northern Territory senator and Indigenous affairs minister since September 2013 – knew about the mistreatment, Joyce replied “if Nigel Scullion had known about this he would have acted”.

“The issue we had is that we didn’t know about this.”

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Turnbull said he had consulted the Northern Territory chief minister, Adam Giles, federal attorney general George Brandis, Scullion and human rights commission president Gillian Triggs, who all agreed the government needed to move swiftly.

He noted the Don Dale centre had been “controversial” in the past and the subject of previous inquiries.

“We will get to the bottom of what happened here: we want to know how this came about, what lessons can be learned from it, why there were inquiries that did not turn up this evidence,” he said.

“We need to expose the cultural problems, the administrative problems that allowed this type of mistreatment to occur,” Turnbull said.



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“We need to understand how it was that there were inquiries into Don Dale, as a place where there had been allegations of abuse – there were inquiries, but did not produce the evidence that we’ve seen last night.”

Turnbull said children in detention should be treated humanely, but did not call for Don Dale to be immediately shut down – the centre was moved to the adult jail at Berrimah following the events illustrated on Four Corners. He said the royal commission, to be conducted jointly with the Northern Territory government, would be established and would report as soon as possible.

Patrick Dodson, Labor’s shadow assistant minister for Indigenous affairs, called on the government to take a broader look at the justice system and detention, not just the Don Dale centre.



He said the Northern Territory’s attorney general, John Elferink, should immediately be stood aside until the inquiry took place.

Dodson told ABC radio it was “a matter of utter shame” and showed problems revealed by the royal commission into deaths in custody 25 years ago continued.

The revelations showed there was “no concept of the duty of care” and no clarity that the minister responsible in the Northern Territory had conducted his duties in a diligent manner, he said.

“It’s clear the senior officer on the occasion that gas was being used was very derelict in his leadership.”

Staff at the Don Dale juvenile detention facility used teargas on youths who were reportedly attempting to escape on 22 August 2014, although CCTV vision showed only one boy had escaped. Of the six boys who were exposed to the gas, five were locked in their cells, and not all were misbehaving.

Dodson said the royal commission should consider law reform because “laws may be part of the problem”, including mandatory sentencing, law and order politics and “lock ’em up and throw the key away attitudes”.

“We are rapidly reinforcing the notion that we are a nation of jailers - we constantly incarcerate the Aboriginal people.”

He said it was “irresponsible” of Giles to say he did not realise the problem was this bad, saying if he were going to be tough on crime he should know what people running detention centres were doing.

Dodson congratulated the prime minister for moving to set up a royal commission but said he should consult the opposition on the terms of reference.

Before the royal commission was announced Ken Wyatt, a federal MP and assistant minister for health, said he was “angry, stunned and ashamed” that such treatment could occur in Australia.



Ken Wyatt MP (@KenWyattMP) I am angry, stunned and ashamed that this is happening in our Country and those responsible must be held accountable.

Triggs told ABC’s Q&A on Monday the juvenile detainees were “out of sight and out of mind in the Northern Territory in these detention centres”.

On Tuesday, Triggs said the royal commission had been needed “for a very long time”.

“We’ve reported many times on conditions generally. I’ve even spoken to the attorney in the Northern Territory about these and other issues,” she said.

Asked whether Elferink should resign, Triggs said that was not a matter for her. She said he was “a man who I know has made some effort but he does not appear to have understood the depth of the problem at this particular detention centre”.

Triggs said the royal commission should look at “national conditions for children because they vary enormously”. She recommended it should issue an interim report first, to address the concern the inquiry could “go on for months or years and disappear into the mist of time”.

The first report could look at the treatment of juveniles, typically Indigenous young people, in the Northern Territory, before going on to a broader second phase.