The Four Corners programme showed footage of teenage offenders stripped naked, assaulted and tear gassed.
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The royal commission was prompted by graphic images of child abuse aired by the ABC’s Four Corners on Monday, following several reports into misconduct in the NT juvenile justice system.
When the tear gas incident occurred in 2014, officials said guards had used the chemical to subdue six teenagers who had staged a riot.
The Northern Territory News headlined its front-page “Sack the lot of them”, while The Australian broadsheet said in an editorial: “Juvenile detention horror a window on our shame”.
At the same time, the imprisonment rate in the Northern Territory was 885 per 100,000 – or more than four times as high as the NSW figure.
“What we saw last night is an absolute disgrace”.
A commissioner’s report into some incidents in 2015 found fault with guards’ behavior but its findings were not acted upon.
The PM said the commission would be established “as soon as possible”, working with NT Chief Minister Adam Giles, Attorney-General George Brandis, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion, and also Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs.
The boy was shown wearing a “spit hood” and being restrained to a chair while he was being detained.
In a July 4 response to those claims, the Northern Territory government counter-sued, seeking more than A$160,000 (91,390 pounds) in damages for an escape attempt in which two of the boys stole a vehicle, before using it to ram a roller-door and re-enter the prison.
“Any government that enacts policies created to harm children and enables a culture of brutalisation and cover-ups, surrenders its right to govern”, said spokesman John Paterson.
Residents in Alice Springs staged a peaceful protest against the abuse of children in detention, while the ABC reported that at least eight people were protesting on the roof of a prison in the town. Reuters could not confirm the prison protest.
Voller is a recidivist prisoner who has been in detention centers since he was 11 years old.
The government is also taking steps to immediately remove detainees from the Don Dale youth correctional facility and is assessing former immigration detention centres as alternative accommodation. “There’s never been any suggestion that this sort of treatment was brought to my attention or the attention of other Supreme Court judges.I see the advantages of a knowledge of the Territory”, he said.
“It needs to scrutinize all tiers of the Northern Territory prison hierarchy, from the guards who perpetrated the abuse right up to the Chief Minister”, the statement said.
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“Over the years, I’ve been involved in royal commissions as a lawyer, in particular in the past, and I can say to you that these inquiries are most effective when the terms of reference are clearly defined and they get in, make a thorough inquiry and make a report”, he said.
