PM announces royal commission into mistreatment of juveniles in NT detention

[Matilda]

"Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he will establish a royal commission into Northern Territory juvenile detention after revelations raised on ABC's Four Corner's program that have also led to the Minister responsible for the detainees being sacked.

"The announcement comes after the NT Chief Minister Adam Giles issued a statement stating he was "shocked and disgusted" by the details of mistreatment outlined in the program, and he announced the John Elferink, the Territory's Corrections Minister, had been sacked.

"The Four Corners report, which contained graphic footage of prison guards stripping, assaulting and mistreating a teenage boy, who was one of six children tear-gassed at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin in 2014, sparked widespread outrage on social media, with Human Rights Commissioner Ms Triggs calling for an independent inquiry into the treatment of Northern Territory children in detention."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-26/turnbull-calls-for-royal-commission-into-don-dale/7660164



I love the way the pollies are all assuring us they didn't know - they really do think we're stupid.

[Matilda]

1. ‘Piccaninnies’ And Other Expendables:

A New Matilda story which exposes the back-story to last night's Four Corners episode:

"If Four Corners had screened CCTV footage of Dylan Voller, high on ice, bashing a teenager in a car park before his mates knocked him unconscious, it might’ve tempered widespread outrage at his abject victimisation in the NT Don Dale Youth Detention Centre near Darwin, in August 2014.

"It shouldn’t. Four Corners elected to refer to Voller merely as a ‘troubled boy’. Soon after this assault, Voller had levelled the nose of his Holden Commodore at a police officer, and narrowly avoided running him down.

"Instead what Four Corners exposed was the unrestrained institutional violence unleashed on this child from his incarceration at barely 11 years old. As the nauseating footage unspools, it becomes cause for wonder that he didn’t take the opportunity to mow down a member of the force that had repeatedly left him in fear for his life.

"Violently angry doesn’t quite cover the response it has elicited in viewers. God only knows what vengeance lurks in the battered hearts of the boys themselves."

https://newmatilda.com/2016/07/26/piccaninnies-and-other-expendables-what-weve-always-done-to-black-kids-in-australia/