Previous youth abuse revelations didn't pique my interest: Nigel Scullion

Previous youth abuse revelations didn't pique my interest: Nigel Scullion
Fergus Hunter
Fergus Hunter
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion has conceded that previous revelations about the shocking conditions inside the Northern Territory corrections system failed to "pique [his] interest sufficiently" and that he wasn't fully aware of the treatment of incarcerated youth until seeing the vision aired by ABC's Four Corners on Monday night.
Lamenting that "you don't know what you don't know", Senator Scullion said an agitated Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had to ring him and tell him to watch the explosive Four Corners investigation, which has immediately triggered a royal commission.
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Detention footage 'hadn't piqued my interest'
'I hadn't actually seen the program last night,' says Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion. Vision ABC News 24.
Senator Scullion's remarks came as the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency said "none of this is new". The agency rubbished Chief Minister Adam Giles' claims that he and other government figures were not aware of the extent of mistreatment and that there was a cover-up culture in the corrections system.
"It was some of the most disturbing footage I have ever seen, I have ever seen. And it beggars belief that the people that we put in charge of caring for vulnerable children in detention, and - that's right - caring for them and looking after their welfare, were in fact brutalising those children," Senator Scullion said.
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The NT senator said that the treatment of incarcerated Indigenous youth was his patch but he had "assumed that the Northern Territory government were taking care of this matter".
He said John Elferink, who has been sacked as NT corrections minister but remains Attorney-General and holds various other portfolios, should be removed from the frontbench completely. Mr Elferink is due to retire from politics at the upcoming NT election.
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"I hadn't actually seen the program last night," Senator Scullion said. "I was on my way home from a family of a staff member and I was having dinner, so we didn't watch it and the PM rang me, fairly agitated, and said: 'Have you seen it?' and I said: 'No, mate.' He said: 'You better go home and see it. Give me a ring.' So when I did see it, it shocked me to the core."
He describe the conduct in the Four Corners report as "evil" and said it was shocking how little the guards cared about being discovered.
Youths are manhandled by corrections system staff in the ABC footage.
Youths are manhandled by corrections system staff in the ABC footage. Photo: ABC Four Corners
Four Corners journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna said that Senator Scullion's office had requested an advance copy of the program and was aware it would air on Monday night.
"None of this was new at all," NAAJA chief executive Priscilla Collins said on Tuesday afternoon.
Dylan Voller being manhandled by staff at the Darwin facility.
Dylan Voller being manhandled by staff at the Darwin facility. Photo: ABC Four Corners
"Before the children's commissioner's report, the Vita report was also done. There's been two investigations and those investigations have the full transcript of that video footage that everyone saw last night."
"So when you have the Chief Minister and the Attorney-General say that they are shocked, they can't be shocked. They had access to this report and that footage years ago."
Dylan Voller is hooded and strapped to a restraining chair in the footage aired on Four Corners.
Dylan Voller is hooded and strapped to a restraining chair in the footage aired on Four Corners. Photo: ABC Four Corners
Senator Scullion said he didn't know how it was possible that the NT government was not aware of the issues.
Senator Scullion specifically called for NT inquiries to address the vision of Dylan Voller strapped down in a restraining chair with a spit hood over his hair, which has drawn comparisons to the notorious Abu Ghraib facility.
He expressed shock "that we actually have a system that says if you're going to self-harm and you are going to harm yourself, somehow the most helpful thing to do is to tie you down and put a bag on your head".
"And if that is world's best practice - well, I am just stunned, but that is how it was portrayed," he said.
There has been widespread agreement that the royal commission should address far more than the incidents at the Don Dale Youth Correctional Centre and should investigate systemic issues in the NT corrections and child protection system.