The Northern Territory government has given its support to all but 10 of the royal commission recommendations to fix its failed child protection and detention systems, but declined to guarantee they would be fully funded and implemented.
Half the recommendations were given “in principle support”, including a ban on incarcerating under-14s except in extreme circumstances, and some which required no funding, such as the call to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
The royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the Northern Territory delivered its final report and 227 recommendations in November, labelling the system a continuing failure which harmed children.
The NT government has already acted on some recommendations, including allocating $70m to replace both Don Dale in Darwin and the Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre.
While conditions have improved, there are still 38 children incarcerated in the two facilities, with 35 on remand, despite new bail support services and accommodation.
The NT government will act on the report “to make sure we have a plan in place that is properly resourced and is able to deliver change on the ground”, the Territory families minister, Dale Wakefield, said on Thursday.
Wakefield said 10 recommendations were the responsibility of other parties or the federal government, including a proposed audit of commonwealth expenditure, which was the subject of dispute last month over whether it called for examining NT spending of federal money, or federally funded programs.
Wakefield would not provide details of funding or any guarantee that all 217 recommendations would be fully funded
but she would be talking to the commonwealth about federal assistance before then.
Some recommendations were given support “in principle” because the government believed some needed to go further, Wakefield said, but she wouldn’t be drawn on whether “in principle” meant they might not be funded.
Other recommendations not given full support included:
- Sufficient female staff to supervise female detainees
- A youth justice case management system
- Better working conditions for youth justice officers
- Required retention of all CCTV for at least 12 months
- Free and unfettered access to facilities and detainees for the children’s commissioner to investigate
- A custody notification scheme
- Foster care reform
- Restrictions on police holding children for more than four hours
Asked if the royal commission response was the number one priority for the NT government, Wakefield said the government had to balance its priorities, shared between three areas of children, the economy and jobs, and transparency.
Ensuring a healthy economy “is one of the best things we can do for families who are struggling, as well as making sure we are delivering the services that are needed to our community”, she said.
The government was criticised last week for announcing more than $100m in tourism grants to towns including Tennant Creek, which is in the grip of a violence and mental health crisis. It has also recently announced $50m for a new museum.
Jared Sharp, general manager of the NT Jesuit Social Services, said there was “no higher priority” than youth protection and justice reform, and the NT needed to deliver a budget commitment to fully implement all recommendations.
“This is our once in a generation opportunity to get this right, and we’ve got a royal commission that’s given us a blueprint,” Sharp said.
He said the federal government went into the royal commission “backing it 50-50” with running costs, and now had to continue that share of the load in responding to it.
Olga Havnen, the chief executive of the Danila Dilba health service, said she was waiting until the implementation was released, but she suspected the cost would require federal assistance.
“It would be nice to see in this budget … that there is a reasonable level of commitment and some realistic resourcing made for implementing these reforms.”
Havnen said a generational plan for investment over 10-15 years had never happened but was needed, particularly for housing, which was at the heart of many Indigenous disadvantage issues.
Forensic accounting analyses over several years have identified a concerning trend within succcessive NT governments of apparent misspending of federal GST funds which were earmarked for Indigenous disadvantage.
More than 80% of the NT’s Indigenous population lived outside urban areas, and Havnen estimated at least 50% of funds which should be spent on the NT’s remote and disadvantaged Indigenous communities were instead being siphoned elsewhere.
“Try go looking for any level of detail around Indigenous expenditure, and it’s completely and utterly opaque.”
