Leanne Liddle calls out racism across all levels of power

She is known for speaking truth to power, Garma’s keynote speaker Leanne Liddle delivered exactly that. Read more here:

THE Northern Territory’s Australian of the Year has delivered a compelling speech calling out racism across all levels of power at this year’s Garma Festival.

Arrernte woman and leader Leanne Liddle vowed not to hold back when she addressed leaders and thinkers from across the nation at what is dubbed the “most significant celebration of First Nations culture” in the country

Titled ‘Handcuffed to Justice’, her speech wove personal accounts of racism to demonstrate the structural racism that traps Aboriginal people in Northern Territory jails and poverty.

Ms Liddle stepped the audience through a story that shows how at every level – police, courts, judges and media – have failed Aboriginal people.

“Almost nobody would say that non-Aboriginal cultures and men are inherently violent and that police are disinterested and incompetent,” her speech says.

“Although many may want to say that misogyny, patriarchy and sexism have created social, cultural and political environments in which violence towards women and children is trivialised and coercive control ignored.”

The Northern Territory’s Australian of the Year is set to raise eyebrows at #GarmaFestival as she delivers a compelling speech calling out #racism across all levels of power. #AusPol#[e-mail]/z9scMzrnP7

— Zizi Averill (@ZiziAverill) July 31, 2022

Ms Liddle specifically contests The Australian’s reporting of the Kumanjayi Walker murder trial and the subsequent features on domestic violence in Aboriginal communities as “sensationalised and over-simplified”.

She asked the audience to consider if coverage of other horrific acts of domestic violence, like the murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children in Queensland two years ago, demonstrate the same “animalistic” Anglo-Celtic culture.

She calls out a number of Judge Judith Kelly’s comments, reported on June 3 in The Weekend Australian, as examples of “othering”.

In the article, Judge Kelly said she just “wanted people to know” what was happening to Aboriginal women.

Ms Liddle asked the audience to consider the language and meaning of “people” and who might and might not already be aware of domestic violence in Aboriginal communities.

“I strongly feel that such language reflects an undercurrent of racism – an ‘othering’ of Aboriginal people that exists within our society,” Ms Liddle said.

She went on to detail the staggering proportion of Aboriginal people incarcerated in the Northern Territory: 85 per cent in adult prisons and almost 100 per cent in juvenile detention, despite Aboriginal people only making up 35 per cent of the Northern Territory’s overall population.

She urged the audience to consider who is handcuffed in this system, pointing not only to those trapped inside it but the institutions themselves.

“Firstly, the police are sometimes literally handcuffed to their Aboriginal detainees,” she said, painting a visual picture.

“They are also handcuffed to past policing practices and procedures that have patently failed to reduce crime rates.”

She explained how the judiciary system and judges were “handcuffed” to a broken idea of justice.

“Judges are often faced with limited sentencing options including repeated incarceration often for short periods in a revolving door of offending and imprisonment,” she said.

“Thirdly, the media is handcuffed to increased pressure of online content amid a torrent of social media and competing parties. It has always been the case that ‘bad news’ makes for ‘good news’ judged by sales and clicks … as viewers and readers becoming increasingly numb.”

She turned to government and election cycles that perpetuate propaganda narratives like ‘tough on crime’.

“What we know about the NT community is that they want real solutions that work to combat crime,” she said.

The speech caused an impassioned response from various leaders at Garma who resonated with the ideas of being trapped in a failing justice system.

NT Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb committed to addressing the “handcuffs” on the Northern Territory courts, with limited sentencing and rehabilitation options. 

“That’s where I am going to focus my attention because that’s my area of responsibility,” Mr Babb said. 

“The criminal justice system in the Territory is … inherently unhealthy.”

He said a “one-size all” approach to justice led to a cycle of “recidivism and hopelessness”. 

“Words that we’ve heard this weekend will not mean anything unless there is action,” he said.

Senior Counsel Phillip Boulten, who sat on the 2016 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, said the last thing the NT needed back then was yet another inquiry.

“We all said ‘this is a disgrace’ and one of our members said ‘this deserves a Royal Commission’ and everyone of us said you’ve got to be kidding. Why would you want a Royal Commission?’,” he said.

“It’s obvious what needs to be done. First of all you have to bulldoze Don Dale, build a purpose-built facility for kids in the NT and there needs to be a whole lot of interventions into juvenile justice.

“Of course the (former) prime minister announced the Royal Commission the next day.”

According to Mr Boulten, all a Royal Commission did was create a continuing set of paperwork in the form of commissions, inquiries, reports and “so on and so forth”.

He said six years on only “surface reforms” had come from the Royal Commission and that even reforms like banning spit hoods and restraint chairs in youth justice were shallow, with the NT News revealing this year the measures were still used on kids in police watch houses.

“We are handcuffed to an injustice system, and nothing much is changing,” Mr Boulten said.

University of Melbourne Associate Dean Eddie Cubillo, who was also part of the Royal Commission, said there was an “ongoing crisis” in the justice system.

“None of them (the recommendations) have really been implemented – it’s all tokenism,” Dr Cubillo said.

He said Don Dale was a myth, the old detention centre had been bulldozed and children were currently held in a previously condemned wing of the Berrimah adult prison wing.

“The children are in a maximum security jail for adults, with a bit of paint,” Dr Cubillo said

Mr Boulten said a route to reducing the number of kids in detention was raising the age of criminal responsibility.