NT police commissioner expected to deliver an apology for racist events at the Garma festival today

ABC NEWS (Australia)

ABC news presenter, Dan Bourchier spoke to the NT police commissioner and the most senior Indigenous woman with the NT police Leanne Liddle.

Transcript

00:00This comes after there have been numerous calls for action and a rethink about policing

00:08in the Northern Territory.

00:09The Northern Territory's Police Commissioner, Michael Murphy, and Leanne Little, who is

00:14co-leading that piece of work, join us.

00:15Good morning to you both.

00:16Good morning, Ed.

00:17How are you?

00:18Commissioner, what are you going to say today?

00:20Well, look, can I just firstly recognise it's great to be on the lands of the Gummatch people.

00:24It's brilliant to be here at Garma, such an immersive cultural environment, and it's great

00:29to be invited here.

00:32This afternoon I'll be speaking to a crowd at the Boongool Ceremony area, and it's basically

00:37recognising the injustices and the harms that Northern Territory Police have been involved

00:42in in the previous 154 years.

00:45So it's about recognising that, owning it, so we can move forward and unite and look

00:50at that healing and reconciliation into the future to work together for better outcomes

00:54for community safety.

00:55We see the closing the gap, the high rates of incarceration.

00:59That's not the answer.

01:00The answer is working together and making sure we have a safe community.

01:03We work alongside each other and look for better outcomes for all our community members.

01:08Commissioner, is this an apology?

01:10It will be an apology, yes.

01:11It will be an apology for a number of our involvements in policy positions and also

01:15some of our activities that we have undertaken as the Northern Territory Police in the past.

01:20There is a coronial inquest into the death of Kumund Jai Walker right now.

01:24Is that one of the events that you're responding to?

01:26Look, obviously the death of Kumund Jai Walker has provided an opportunity for us to reflect.

01:31Not just on that event, but the whole history of Northern Territory Police.

01:34It's a time to make a change.

01:36We need to own our past.

01:38As the Commissioner of Police, I'm responsible for the leadership of the agency and the future

01:42of it and where we're headed.

01:43This is a real opportunity to seize on that and make a difference for the future and make

01:47it a better place.

01:48Commissioner, what led you to this point?

01:52I think talking, listening to the community, hearing about the community.

01:56So the police are the community and we need to understand the community because we need

02:00to work together.

02:01And we did the police by consent.

02:04Having the advice from Leanne Little and Bettina Dangingbar and land councils and the community

02:09and our police officers, there's been a lot of hurt and there's been a lot of anger.

02:13So we need to do something different.

02:14We need to have the courage to actually do that.

02:16And this is where we're at.

02:17Leanne Little, you're an Arundel woman, a lawyer from Central Australia, a NT Australian

02:22of the year.

02:24You've taken on some incredible challenges in your time.

02:29What do you say to this apology that we're getting from the Commissioner, the head of

02:34the Northern Territory Police today?

02:36I think the timing's right.

02:39I think we need to recognise that there's been damage and hurt and pain by Aboriginal

02:45people and the apology will do something towards healing that.

02:50What are you hoping to achieve in this role?

02:53You are the most senior Aboriginal person in the Northern Territory Police and I understand

02:59that part of the work you'll be doing will be a racism review and an anti-racism strategy.

03:05How are you going to go about that work?

03:07So I'll be doing the anti-racism strategy.

03:11It's not a review as such, but also looking at an increasing 30% of Aboriginal people

03:19across all streams within the Northern Territory Police.

03:23So that includes officers, that includes public servants.

03:26So an increase in that area, we'll be looking at putting language speakers in our OOO call

03:32centre so we can better understand Aboriginal people's needs given the fact that we know

03:38there's 120 languages spoken here in the Northern Territory.

03:42And you know we've spoken about this before about the devastating over-incarceration of

03:46Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory that then it said leads to that recidivism.

03:51Is an apology going to make a difference?

03:54The anti-racism strategy will and the policy reforms that will come along with that.

04:00So what we hope to do is that people don't use biases, discrimination, judgement, prejudices

04:07when they work and talk to Aboriginal people and that they're able to diffuse situations

04:14in an appropriate way that's relevant to Aboriginal communities and people and that in turn will

04:20stop the rate of Aboriginal people coming in contact with police that then leads them

04:27into the justice system where we know most never come out as either as a victim or an

04:35offender or a witness.

04:37You've been in the police for a number of weeks now, what's been your experience there

04:42of the culture within the police?

04:44We've got a lot of work to do.

04:47This isn't going to change overnight, it's going to take time so people will need to

04:51be patient but I didn't take this role on lightly, I didn't accept it for a very long

04:58time because I had to make sure that the leadership was there, that my ability to do the work

05:03that I've been asked to do is able to get done.

05:06I'm confident that we will get there.

05:08Are you confident that leadership's there now?

05:11Oh absolutely, without doubt and I don't just say that lightly.

05:16I'm not, people who know me well know that I just won't take a job because a job comes

05:21along and it looks good to me, I have to know that I can get that job done.

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