The minister for resources and northern Australia, Matthew Canavan, has sought to reassure the public of the effectiveness of the government’s royal commission into juvenile detention in the Northern Territory and says it will deliver “real action and results”.
The federal government announced a royal commission into the juvenile justice system in the Northern Territory after shocking footage that emerged from an ABC Four Corners investigation into Don Dale detention facility.
The program captured video of juveniles being teargassed and one being hooded and strapped to a chair. Two senior UN figures have spoken out against the treatment and said it could amount to torture.
But the royal commission has already come under scrutiny after the appointment and swift resignation of a senior NT judicial figure, Brian Martin, over perceptions of a conflict of interest and a lack of consultation with Indigenous Australians.
The government on Monday appointed the former Queensland supreme court judge Margaret White and social justice commissioner Mick Gooda as co-commissioners.
Canavan said on the ABC’s Q&A program: “I understand that inquiries don’t always have the outcomes that people want. I am confident that this inquiry is targeted enough to deliver real results. That most likely won’t please everybody but I’m confident it will deliver action and results.”
The royal commission came under scrutiny from the Indigenous writer and commentator Celeste Liddle.
“I have no faith that any of the recommendations will be implemented,” she said. “You know, I think that the last thing that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want is yet another royal commission, which hands down yet another bunch of recommendations which mainly gather dust on the shelves of Parliament House.”
While Canavan stressed that it did not in any way justify the behaviour of the guards at Don Dole, he took some aim at the behaviour of the juveniles shown in the Four Corners program that led to their incarceration.
Canavan told the panel: “I was absolutely shocked by the vision that was on Four Corners last week. But I’m also shocked, as a father of four boys, my eldest is 11 – he is only about the same age as one of those children who started his life of crime – I’m just shocked that some of these young children are committing the acts as described.”
The Labor senator Lisa Singh, who has regained her seat in Tasmania after a close election battle, said the “strong law and order culture” that existed in the Northern Territory and other parts of the country increased the risk of recidivism for juvenile offenders and urged a more considered approach to handling young crime and justice.
“Locking young offenders up for 23 hours a day, in that instance, is not teaching them anything,” she said. “It is not teaching them about what’s right and wrong, and providing them with the supports that they need to get back on track.”
The ethicist Peter Singer said: “I don’t think it is about retribution.
“I think you may have to separate them from the community for a time in order to prevent them continuing to offend but you have to use that time as well as you can to make sure that they then have developed skills and understanding of other options.”
The panel also touched on the decision of the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, not to endorse the former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd’s bid for the position of United Nations secretary general.
“I think it is a little difficult to say it is partisan politics not to support him when, after all, the Labor party didn’t support him as prime minister for a time,” Singer said. “If the Labor party doesn’t think he is good enough to be prime minister, or at least for part of it, it is hard to say it is partisan politics from nominating him.”
Singh said it was an example of Turnbull “kowtowing” to the conservatives in the Liberal party to keep his job and said Rudd deserved more respect.
Canavan told the panel he believed Turnbull had made a decision that was “best for Australia.”
“It is not only about just supporting an Australian,” he said “It is about making a judgment for what is best for the United Nations and for the future of the world.”
