The footage, which aired on the Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s investigative program “Four Corners” Monday, was filmed between 2010 and 2015.
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It took two videos to make the Australian government look into a problem that has previously been highlighted by numerous human rights groups.
“None of this is accidental, “.
“This is an inquiry into the juvenile and youth detentions of the Northern Territory”, he said.
Mr Giles said the government had now suspended the use of “spit hoods” and mechanical chairs which the footage showed guards using on children.
Mr Turnbull announced the former Chief Justice of the Northern Territory, Brain Martin, will lead the inquiry which will principally look at failings in child protection and youth detention systems as well as if any laws were broken and if there was “deficiencies of the organisational culture”.
But some advocates have criticized the scope of the investigation for not being broad enough – saying this could be going on in other parts of the country.
The Northern Territory’s attorney-general, John Elferink, has been stripped of his corrections portfolio in the wake of the scandal.
“Deeply shocked. We have moved swiftly to get to the bottom of it”, the Prime Minister told ABC radio, commenting on the news program which revealed the abuse of young detainees at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin.
“I’ll pulverise the little f****r”, one staff said. Footage obtained by the program shows underage detainees exposed to tear gas while trapped inside their cells, during an incident in 2014 that was described by media at the time as a “riot”.
The chilling vision shows young boys at Don Dale Youth Prison in Northern Territory being tear gassed, blindfolded and shackled at the hands of prison guards.
Justice Martin, the former chief justice of the NT, will look at whether enough was done about two reports in January and August a year ago of abuse of young people at Don Dale centre.
She said: “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”.
NT Chief Minister Adam Giles had agreed to the terms of reference, Senator Brandis said.
“I understand there are rules which guide the prisons in Australia and the United Nations, and how we use basic human rights in the treatment of prisoners. what I do not understand is how we are soft, flaccid, and incapable of punishing prisoners in our corrections system”.
“I support the concept of a royal commission”, Mr Turnbull told reporters on Tuesday morning.
“We need assurances right now that the abuses revealed on the Four Corners program are not going to be repeated, and can not be repeated”.
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Lawyer Peter O’Brien, who represents Voller and Jake Roper who were abused, said he was suing the state on their behalf, alleging assault, battery and false imprisonment.
