The Northern Territory and federal governments will equally share the estimated $50m cost of the royal commission into the protection and detention of children, the NT chief minister has said.
Michael Gunner met with the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and discussed the operation of the inquiry, which was called during the term of the previous NT government but without an arrangement made for how it would be paid for.
On Friday, Gunner announced the costs would be shared equally in a commitment to an informal offer made by his predecessor, Adam Giles.
“Obviously the frustration as incoming chief minister was that the former chief minister made that as a verbal agreement and he didn’t budget for it,” he told Guardian Australia.
“It’s not in the budget papers, it’s noted in Pefo [pre-election economic and fiscal outlook] by our Treasury and the commonwealth had indicated it would cost about $50m, but that information and that direction never came from the former chief minister.”
Gunner said should the costs go beyond $50m if the royal commission was extended beyond its March reporting date – as has been flagged by the commissioners – his government would talk to the commonwealth.
The NT government had budgeted for about $7.5m of its own costs as party to the proceedings, which included subsidies of up to $30,000 for the private legal fees of former government ministers and workers who are called before the commission, as reported by the NT News on Friday.
Gunner said that as part of the $50m agreement, assistance in kind would also be provided.
“In good faith with the prime minister [there’s] $25m in cash, but … through the management of the royal commission there will be things that need to be done – office space or hiring of cars – where the NT government can be of assistance. Obviously we’ll be of assistance. But for my budgeting it’s important I allow for $25m in cash.”
The royal commission began last month, and will hold its first public hearings in October, examining the numerous reports and inquiries conducted previously and questioning their authors. The commissioners, Mick Gooda and Margaret White, spent three days in central Australia this week holding community information sessions.
Gooda said he and White had spent “sleepless nights” thinking about deadlines and he believed they would struggle to complete it by March.
The commission was called following national outrage at a Four Corners episode which broadcast years of mistreatment and alleged abuses inside the Northern Territory’s juvenile justice system.
It will examine the 10 years since the NT introduced the Youth Justice Act, and will examine child protection as well as issues within detention centres. Guardian Australia understands it is not expected to delve deeply into specific incidents such as the August 2014 teargassing of six youths who were inside the isolated behavioural management unit (BMU).
The NT supreme court is currently hearing a civil case, as four of the detainees seek damages from the NT government for alleged assault and battery during the incident. One detainee got out of his cell after an officer forgot to lock it, and began causing damage to the facility.
The court heard this week that former corrections commissioner Middlebrook felt there was “no other option” but to use teargas, and that he believed the other five detainees being affected, despite not escaping their cells, was a “small price to pay” to bring the situation under control.
Middlebrook blamed the confluence of circumstances on successive NT governments failing to invest in youth justice for many years.
