The Northern Territory’s royal commission into juvenile justice has been given an extra four months to deliver its final report.
The federal and Northern Territory governments have agreed to the extend the date to August 1 next year, to be covered by the existing budget.
“Given the importance of the royal commission’s work, both governments consider that it is reasonable and appropriate to grant the short extension,” they said in a joint statement on Friday. “No further extensions will be granted.”
The inquiry into the protection and detention of children had been under increasing pressure to finalise its investigation by March 2017 and deliver a set of recommendations to reform controversial NT systems.
On Wednesday, the office of the federal attorney general, George Brandis, confirmed that an official request from the commission to extend its investigation to August 2017 had been received and was being considered “as a matter of priority”.
The NT government had previously said it would prefer the commission finished sooner rather than later so it could factor reforms based on recommendations into its first budget, to be delivered in May. A spokesman said any extra dollar spent on the commission is a dollar not spent on fixing youth justice.
In September commissioner Mick Gooda flagged an extension would be requested amid fears the tight deadline would not be met.
Last week the solicitor general, acting for the NT government, sought to have 13 witnesses scratched from this current hearing over concerns that insufficient preparation time could result in procedural unfairness. The application was opposed by other legal teams who otherwise agreed they were also struggling with time.
• Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
