A culture of racism, brutality, and official cover-up in the Northern Territory's discredited juvenile justice system will be centrally examined by a royal commission that will see politicians, including territory ministers and their senior bureaucrats, compelled to give evidence.
The inquiry, to be led by former NT Supreme Court chief justice Brian Ross Martin, will probe the failings of the Northern Territory's youth detention systems since 2006 and has been tasked with discovering who knew what, and why previous reports and allegations detailing criminal violence by prison officers against vulnerable minors, went unaddressed.
The Turnbull government, which signed off on the inquiry at its first Cabinet meeting since the election, resisted calls to exclude the embattled Adam Giles-led CLP government from the joint design and administration process of the commission.
Mr Giles had failed to sack his Attorney-General, John Elferink, amid the crisis, merely relieving him of his correctional services responsibilities. Mr Giles has also been embarrassed this week by previous harsh comments favouring brutal treatment of young offenders.
Both Mr Martin and Mr Turnbull assured a heavily traumatised Indigenous community in the territory that the royal commission would be thoroughly independent and that anyone with evidence of maltreatment would be invited to deliver their evidence in hearings to begin in October after an initial directions hearing on September 6.
Unveiling the terms of reference and the head of the inquiry, dubbed "very substantial" in their breadth by one minister, Mr Turnbull emphasised his government's shock at the evidence of systematic abuse, which had been broadcast on Monday evening by the ABC's Four Corners program.
"As a nation we have a fundamental responsibility to protect our children," Mr Turnbull said while announcing the inquiry. A failure to do so "diminishes all of us", he added.
He said it was important to recognise that 95 per cent of juvenile detainees in the Northern Territory were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.
Mr Martin subsequently told reporters: "Whether racism does or doesn't play a role will be a part of the inquiry."
Federal Attorney-General George Brandis outlined the terms of reference, explaining the inquiry will examine:
- The treatment of children detained at all youth detention facilities run by the NT government, including but not limited to the Don Dale facility.
- Whether any such treatment might have breached federal or NT law, human rights obligations, duty of care or any other rules.
- What mechanisms and safeguards were in place and why they failed.
- Whether there were "any deficiencies of the organisational culture" in NT youth detention facilities".
- Whether more should have been done by the NT government.
Critics continued to complain that the inquiry was too narrow, with the Lawyers' Alliance describing the terms of reference as "a missed opportunity" because it limits the scope to the Territory alone.
Labor was angered by a joint Prime Minister and Attorney-General press statement, which said: "The government thanks the many individuals and organisations, including the Opposition, who have provided constructive input into the development of the terms of reference".
A Labor source said there had been no discussion whatsoever on the inquiry parameters beyond an offer by shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus to contribute.
That marked a sharp contrast with the consultation initiated by then prime minister Julia Gillard who consulted with the then Abbott opposition in relation to the sexual abuse royal commission now under way.
In particular, the Martin royal commission will probe why two reports to the NT government in 2015 "were not given effect to sufficiently or at all", Senator Brandis said.
"We believe that these terms of reference are both sufficiently focused but, at the same time, sufficiently broad that we'll get tangible outcomes from this inquiry," he said.
Mr Martin has served on the highest judicial benches of the Northern Territory and South Australia, including six years as chief justice of the NT. The Prime Minister praised his "deep understanding of the legal and justice systems of the Northern Territory, and a deep familiarity with issues arising from the engagement of Indigenous people with criminal justice".
Mr Martin played down suggestions that conflicts of interest could arise from his time as NT chief justice between 2004 and 2010.
"I can't see how that would arise," he said. "There's never been any suggestion that this sort of treatment was brought to my attention or the attention of other Supreme Court judges."
Mr Martin said he could not guarantee he had not been involved in sentencing a young person who was a subject of the royal commission, but: "The mere fact that I might have sentenced someone, I don't see as a problem at all."
