The Northern Territory opposition leader has apologised for his party’s role in the alleged abuses suffered by detainees in the Territory’s juvenile detention centres.
Michael Gunner, who is expected to lead Labor to power at next month’s election, made the comments at the opening ceremony of the annual Garma festival in north-east Arnhem Land.
Gunner said he had originally planned to talk about something else before he watched Four Corners on Monday.
“Grief, anger, shame has dominated the conversation of the nation in the days since and I feel compelled to address it here today,” he told the crowd.
“Repeated Northern Territory governments have failed in their duty towards the children in our care. For that I say sorry to you all. Sorry. When children are in a government’s care we are their parents. As parents there is a clear relationship of love, of trust.”
He said the situation had to be fixed because it was “wrong”.
“No matter what these kids have done, nobody deserves to be teated like this. This does not break the cycle of incarceration, this breaks kids,” he said.
“I cannot do this alone, I cannot walk in front of you, I cannot walk behind you, I must walk with you.”
Gunner promised a Labor government would fix the youth justice system, remove “bad laws” such as paperless arrests and alcohol protection orders, and would “stop the government using that chair”.
This year’s Garma event – which features key discussions and addresses from the country’s Indigenous and political leaders – is centred around the 40th anniversary of the Land Rights Act, but much of the focus on Friday was on the recently announced royal commission into juvenile detention in the Northern Territory.
The first forum on education heard scathing remarks from Labor MP Warren Snowdon and former Indigenous affairs minister Fred Chaney about the NT government.
Gunner had earlier called for Adam Giles to resign as chief minister, after Giles admitted on local radio that he had seen the teargassing video before it was aired by Four Corners.
“On six occasions during his 50-minute press conference on Tuesday, Adam Giles maintained he had never seen any of the footage before the Four Corners story,” Gunner said.
“Every day that Adam Giles remains chief minister of the Northern Territory further compromises the Territory’s ability to uncover the truth behind the events we witnessed on Monday night.”
Gunner said Giles’s immediate resignation would deliver justice for children and set the Territory on a path to a safer environment.
It was also revealed on Friday that the NT government had launched legal action against some young detainees in June, over the damage they allegedly caused during a disturbance in the new Don Dale centre. Some detainees allegedly escaped from the centre, stole a car, and then drove it back through the centre’s door. Later on Friday Giles said he would drop the suit, but the children’s lawyers were yet to be informed.
