Indigenous Coalition frontbencher Ken Wyatt said reports of shocking abuse of teenagers in Northern Territory detention centres left him feeling angry, and he alerted the Prime Minister to the extent of the revelations on the ABC's Four Corners program.

Key points: Ken Wyatt compliments Mr Turnbull's quick actions to establish royal commission

Ken Wyatt compliments Mr Turnbull's quick actions to establish royal commission Labor's Tanya Plibersek says wants inquiry to see if the abuse was more widespread

Labor's Tanya Plibersek says wants inquiry to see if the abuse was more widespread PM "determined to get to the bottom" of extent of youth mistreatment

The program included graphic, never-before-seen footage of guards at Darwin's Don Dale Detention Centre throwing a teenage boy across his cell before stripping him naked and leaving him in tears.

Video showed guards using tear gas to subdue six boys during a disturbance at the centre, some of whom were still locked in their cells.

Mr Wyatt said he was stunned to see footage of another boy who had a hood placed over his head, and he was then shackled to a chair.

"I watched the program and I sat at the end of it stunned," the Assistant Health Minister said.

"It was something that I had always associated with [Abu Ghraib] or overseas imagery I had seen of people in detention, but not here in Australia, particularly that young [Dylan] sitting in the chair constrained.

"I was angry, I certainly sent a text message to the Prime Minister and then I spoke with [Cabinet Secretary] Arthur Sinodinos about the issue and the need for a national intervention."

Assistant Health Minister Ken Wyatt says the Four Corners revelations show the need for national intervention. ( Josh Jerga: AAP )

Mr Wyatt said he had been in contact with Malcolm Turnbull, and complimented his quick action to establish a royal commission.

"I am assuming the Prime Minister would have been watching but I still sent a text message indicating that there was a need to watch Four Corners," he said.

"He responded by saying he was watching it on [ABC] iView, which meant he hadn't seen the beginning of the program.

"He has been very forthcoming, I know he was horrified by what he saw.

"The anger I felt within that we, as a first-world nation, are doing this to Aboriginal kids in custody, also begs the question: were there other children who weren't Indigenous that were subjected to the same processes that we saw last night on Four Corners?"

In announcing the royal commission, Mr Turnbull said he had been "deeply shocked and appalled" by the reports.

"We're determined to get to the bottom of this," he said.

"We're determined to examine the extent to which there has been a culture of abuse and indeed whether there has been a culture of cover-up, because there have been inquiries into this centre before and events portrayed on Four Corners last night did not emerge, so why was this abuse, this mistreatment, unrevealed for so long?"

Labor calls for inquiry 'to look more broadly at the system'

The inquiry has bipartisan support at a federal level, however Labor wants it to go beyond just the incidents outlined on Four Corners.

"We would like a royal commission to look more broadly at the system, the juvenile justice system in the Northern Territory," Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said.

"We want to examine whether similar things are happening in other places.

"We want to make sure that we look at the pathways that these young people have followed that mean that they are in juvenile justice at such early ages, and we want to examine whether there are better alternatives than seeing such young children in this sort of detention."

Federal politicians from all parties had been voicing their opinions on the conduct of dumped NT corrections minister John Elferink's responsibility for the incident.

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles announced he had taken over the corrections portfolio from Mr Elferink, but that he would remain as the territory's chief law officer.

Mr Giles referred the ABC footage to NT Police, and said his Government only became aware of some of the allegations as Four Corners was investigating.

"I have confidence in the Chief Minister, but he needs the confidence of the people of the Northern Territory," Mr Turnbull said.

"I am not going to engage in a critique of one state minister or territory minister after another.

"I have discussed this matter with Adam Giles … and he is as committed as I am to there being a rigorous inquiry and investigation, and that inquiry, that royal commission, may well throw up evidence about the extent to which the Government was aware of events or not."