Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
NT police commissioner expected to deliver an apology for racist events at the Garma festival today
ABC NEWS (Australia)
Follow
8/3/2024
ABC news presenter, Dan Bourchier spoke to the NT police commissioner and the most senior Indigenous woman with the NT police Leanne Liddle.
Category
📺
TV
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
This comes after there have been numerous calls for action and a rethink about policing
00:08
in the Northern Territory.
00:09
The Northern Territory's Police Commissioner, Michael Murphy, and Leanne Little, who is
00:14
co-leading that piece of work, join us.
00:15
Good morning to you both.
00:16
Good morning, Ed.
00:17
How are you?
00:18
Commissioner, what are you going to say today?
00:20
Well, look, can I just firstly recognise it's great to be on the lands of the Gummatch people.
00:24
It's brilliant to be here at Garma, such an immersive cultural environment, and it's great
00:29
to be invited here.
00:32
This afternoon I'll be speaking to a crowd at the Boongool Ceremony area, and it's basically
00:37
recognising the injustices and the harms that Northern Territory Police have been involved
00:42
in in the previous 154 years.
00:45
So it's about recognising that, owning it, so we can move forward and unite and look
00:50
at that healing and reconciliation into the future to work together for better outcomes
00:54
for community safety.
00:55
We see the closing the gap, the high rates of incarceration.
00:59
That's not the answer.
01:00
The answer is working together and making sure we have a safe community.
01:03
We work alongside each other and look for better outcomes for all our community members.
01:08
Commissioner, is this an apology?
01:10
It will be an apology, yes.
01:11
It will be an apology for a number of our involvements in policy positions and also
01:15
some of our activities that we have undertaken as the Northern Territory Police in the past.
01:20
There is a coronial inquest into the death of Kumund Jai Walker right now.
01:24
Is that one of the events that you're responding to?
01:26
Look, obviously the death of Kumund Jai Walker has provided an opportunity for us to reflect.
01:31
Not just on that event, but the whole history of Northern Territory Police.
01:34
It's a time to make a change.
01:36
We need to own our past.
01:38
As the Commissioner of Police, I'm responsible for the leadership of the agency and the future
01:42
of it and where we're headed.
01:43
This is a real opportunity to seize on that and make a difference for the future and make
01:47
it a better place.
01:48
Commissioner, what led you to this point?
01:52
I think talking, listening to the community, hearing about the community.
01:56
So the police are the community and we need to understand the community because we need
02:00
to work together.
02:01
And we did the police by consent.
02:04
Having the advice from Leanne Little and Bettina Dangingbar and land councils and the community
02:09
and our police officers, there's been a lot of hurt and there's been a lot of anger.
02:13
So we need to do something different.
02:14
We need to have the courage to actually do that.
02:16
And this is where we're at.
02:17
Leanne Little, you're an Arundel woman, a lawyer from Central Australia, a NT Australian
02:22
of the year.
02:24
You've taken on some incredible challenges in your time.
02:29
What do you say to this apology that we're getting from the Commissioner, the head of
02:34
the Northern Territory Police today?
02:36
I think the timing's right.
02:39
I think we need to recognise that there's been damage and hurt and pain by Aboriginal
02:45
people and the apology will do something towards healing that.
02:50
What are you hoping to achieve in this role?
02:53
You are the most senior Aboriginal person in the Northern Territory Police and I understand
02:59
that part of the work you'll be doing will be a racism review and an anti-racism strategy.
03:05
How are you going to go about that work?
03:07
So I'll be doing the anti-racism strategy.
03:11
It's not a review as such, but also looking at an increasing 30% of Aboriginal people
03:19
across all streams within the Northern Territory Police.
03:23
So that includes officers, that includes public servants.
03:26
So an increase in that area, we'll be looking at putting language speakers in our OOO call
03:32
centre so we can better understand Aboriginal people's needs given the fact that we know
03:38
there's 120 languages spoken here in the Northern Territory.
03:42
And you know we've spoken about this before about the devastating over-incarceration of
03:46
Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory that then it said leads to that recidivism.
03:51
Is an apology going to make a difference?
03:54
The anti-racism strategy will and the policy reforms that will come along with that.
04:00
So what we hope to do is that people don't use biases, discrimination, judgement, prejudices
04:07
when they work and talk to Aboriginal people and that they're able to diffuse situations
04:14
in an appropriate way that's relevant to Aboriginal communities and people and that in turn will
04:20
stop the rate of Aboriginal people coming in contact with police that then leads them
04:27
into the justice system where we know most never come out as either as a victim or an
04:35
offender or a witness.
04:37
You've been in the police for a number of weeks now, what's been your experience there
04:42
of the culture within the police?
04:44
We've got a lot of work to do.
04:47
This isn't going to change overnight, it's going to take time so people will need to
04:51
be patient but I didn't take this role on lightly, I didn't accept it for a very long
04:58
time because I had to make sure that the leadership was there, that my ability to do the work
05:03
that I've been asked to do is able to get done.
05:06
I'm confident that we will get there.
05:08
Are you confident that leadership's there now?
05:11
Oh absolutely, without doubt and I don't just say that lightly.
05:16
I'm not, people who know me well know that I just won't take a job because a job comes
05:21
along and it looks good to me, I have to know that I can get that job done.
Recommended
2:06
|
Up next
NT Police Union pushes back on content of Police Commissioner’s historic apology to Indigenous people
ABC NEWS (Australia)
8/5/2024
1:56
Michael Murphy's departure puts second apology to NT Aboriginal people in doubt
ABC NEWS (Australia)
3/16/2025
2:44
Victoria's police chief apologises for treatment of Indigenous Australians
ABC NEWS (Australia)
5/8/2023
1:49
NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy too 'busy' to report allegations of racism in elite TRG unit, coroner hears
ABC NEWS (Australia)
5/29/2024
1:37
NT Police apologises to Indigenous communities for injustices
Australian Community Media
8/5/2024
1:18
Claims of widespread racism within the NT Police force
ABC NEWS (Australia)
2/27/2024
1:57
Northern Territory Police Commissioner quits union following criticism
ABC NEWS (Australia)
8/6/2024
3:45
NT elder calls for explanation from police's elite Tactical Response Group as it faces investigations into racist behaviour
ABC NEWS (Australia)
4/2/2024
2:36
BENJAMIN TO ACT AS COMMISSIONER
CCNTV6
2/4/2025
1:44
Coroner shown ‘racist’ awards shared among NT Police
ABC NEWS (Australia)
5/28/2024
2:02
Leanne Liddle on heading up NT Police Force efforts to combat racism, improve Indigenous relations
ABC NEWS (Australia)
8/10/2024
2:51
GG SAYS TTPS RESPONSE TO MINISTER GOOD BUT..
CCNTV6
9/20/2024
1:43
NT police union boss launches scathing attack on the government
ABC NEWS (Australia)
8/19/2022
2:17
Former prime minister John Howard defends NT Intervention after police commissioner apology speech
ABC NEWS (Australia)
8/17/2024
1:24
WILL BE A DIFFICULT TIME FOR TTPS SAYS GG
CCNTV6
2/1/2025
2:08
Domestic violence inquest hears of increased NT police response times and fresh racism allegations
ABC NEWS (Australia)
5/20/2024
2:42
Zachary Rolfe allegedly held 'overtly racist attitudes', NT coroner told in Kumanjayi Walker inquest
ABC NEWS (Australia)
11/28/2024
3:11
NSW Police is being accused of having a toxic and racist culture by two indigenous former officers
ABC NEWS (Australia)
11/26/2024
3:19
BENJAMIN TO ACT AS CoP AS MPS DEBATE VACANCY
CCNTV6
2/6/2025
14:34
Mayor addresses racist abuse
Derry Journal
3/5/2025
4:34
WATCH: Police Officer vows to 'stand by' GB News comments that got him sacked
GB News
4/27/2025
0:46
Met: Honesty and integrity at the core of policing
ODN
10/25/2023
1:53
NT police commissioner promises ‘cultural reform’, after First Nations police officers lodge human rights complaint
ABC NEWS (Australia)
9/22/2024
1:06
Casey Report: Met Police is 'sexist, homophobic and racist'
NationalWorld.com
3/21/2023
3:24
'Nicola Bulley cops weren't bungling - it was TikTok amateur detectives who were the problem', says Lancashire police commissioner
Lancashire Post
5/23/2023