“At the start of this week, Australians were shocked and appalled by the images of mistreatment of children at Don Dale youth detention centre”, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.
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The footage presented on the program showed youths being isolated and strapped to mechanical chairs and six boys being tear-gassed, revealing a pattern of abuse, deprivation and punishment of vulnerable children inside Northern Territory youth detention centres.
On Tuesday, it was announced that John Elferink had been sacked as the NT’s Corrections Minister over the affair.
The federal opposition had been calling for the inquiry to be extended to other states and territories but the prime minister warned a broader royal commission could lose its way.
An investigation by ABC’s Four Corners programme contained what the broadcaster called “graphic footage of prison guards stripping, assaulting and mistreating a teenage boy”.
Facebook has removed several videos showing teenagers being allegedly tortured, stripped naked and kept in solitary confinement at a juvenile detention center in Darwin, the capital city of Northern Territory, Australia.
“There wouldn’t be a person I can think of with a deeper concern in that portfolio for the wellbeing of Indigenous people – and a really practical common sense appreciation of the needs of Indigenous communities – than Nigel Scullion”, the Attorney-General said.
A royal commission sparked by footage of brutal abuse of boys behind bars in the Northern Territory will look at whether their treatment breached not only the law but Australia’s human rights obligations.
But Priscilla Collins, CEO of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency in Darwin, said officials knew about the footage for years.
“We don’t propose to take it beyond the Northern Territory because that’s the particular problem that has been exposed”, Senator Brandis told 7.30.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles reportedly said he came to know about the footage only after it was aired Monday, and blamed a “culture of cover-up” within the corrections system.
The government alleges the two former inmates caused more than $160,000 damage during an escape from juvenile detention in June past year, and when they allegedly stole a auto and rammed it back through the front roller door of the facility.
There are cultural issues in that facility and in the juvenile justice system which means there is a pervasive sense of violence and use of force and isolation routinely.
His office said the full terms of reference for the inquiry, including whether it would be restricted to the Northern Territory and juvenile detention centers, would be released after further discussions with authorities.
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The ABC documented a timeline of the horrific abuse Voller has endured since age 13, when he was held up by his neck and thrown into a cell at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.
