“As a effect, the effectiveness of the commission is likely to be compromised from the outset”, Martin said in a statement released on Monday.
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Following Martin’s resignation from the post, Australia’s Attorney-General George Brandis appointed current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda and former Queensland Supreme Court and Appeals Court judge Margaret White as joint commissioners, after consultation with Indigenous leaders.
Questions are being raised about past convictions handed down by Mr Martin, including to some children possibly now involved in the inquiry.
The government ordered the inquiry into the treatment of young offenders after video emerged of prison guards assaulting mostly indigenous boys in a Northern Territory detention centre in 2014 and 2015.
However Mr Martin said the decision did not imply that he doubted his own ability to remain impartial.
The attorney general stressed that Martin’s resignation “does not imply that a royal commission conducted by him would have been tainted by either real or apprehended bias”.
Senator Brandis said Gooda, Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, was the “obvious candidate” after being the most often nominated choice.
Mr Gooda is one influential figure who has backed that threat of intervention.
“I would like to say that it is a great privilege for me to have an opportunity to have as a co-commissioner Mr Gooda and I know that we are going to be able to deal with the various and hard aspects of this inquiry harmoniously and we hope to a good outcome and some recommendations, which will see good juvenile justice in the Northern Territory”.
One boy was shackled to a “mechanical device” chair before being left alone for two hours while another was tackled, lifted and hurled across a room.
“Today’s a pretty special day for me, being tasked with investigating those terrible things we saw last week on the ABC Four Corners program”.
“I’ve been fairly vocal about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people needing to have confidence in the process, to have confidence in the outcomes”.
Brian Ross Martin, a former NT Supreme Court Justice, told reporters in Canberra that he could not proceed with the belief that the effectiveness of the Commission may be compromised from the outset.
“I think I may have set myself up a bit because I will be now part of that process”.
She wants to get to work as soon as possible. The Commission is to have its first hearing in the territory capital, Darwin, on September 6, a date unaffected by the new appointments.
Justice White acted as a junior counsel for the Queensland state government in the landmark Mabo native title High Court case and headed the Queensland commission of inquiry into the state’s racing industry.
The attorney-general announced justice White’s and Gooda’s appointments after Martin resigned over a potential conflict of interest involving his daughter.
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The commission is due to report on March 31 2017.
