Controversial Don Dale court case to end with secret payout

Territorians might never know the secretive resolution of a case in which detention centre inmates alleged authorities had abused their human rights.

Armed police officers at Don Dale Detention during a riot last year: Keri Megelus

TERRITORIANS might never know the secretive resolution of a Federal Court case in which detention centre inmates alleged authorities had abused their human rights, a case which Chief Minister Michael Gunner vowed to fight.

The case — which was due to be heard later this month — would have delved into the treatment in detention of around 20 of the Territory’s worst teenage criminals, whose rap sheets include sex offences, arson, robberies, and countless property crimes.

Some are accused of involvement in a riot which saw part of the centre torched last year.

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Court records show the government and the detainees in late April had “agreed on terms which, subject to the Court’s approval … will resolve these proceedings entirely”.

Those terms are detailed in a secret document which the detainee’s lawyers have asked to be kept in a sealed envelope, only to be opened with the approval of a judge, although Territory Families Minister Dale Wakefield, Attorney-General Natasha Fyles and Chief Minister Michael Gunner all declined to say whether the government would agree to the settlement terms remaining secret.

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None of the ministers would say whether any money would be changing hands as part of the proposed settlement, which could be rubber stamped by a judge as early as the end of the money.

A spokeswoman for Ms Wakefield said: “as the matter is under consideration, no comment can be made”.

The detainees made dozens of claims alleging overcrowding, repeated failures to care for detainees at risk of self harm, improper isolation of some detainees and accommodation that was not “safe, clean, hygienic or reasonably private”.

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The government was late last year ordered to produce reams of documents that might have cast light on the detainees claims, but those orders were set aside in mid-April after the government in March rushed through legislation that gave a retrospective green light to many of the legally dubious actions the detainees were suing over.

Ms Wakefield told parliament in March the rushed legislation was “about backing our frontline staff”.

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The legislation was at the time described “an exercise in arse-covering” by the government to either avoid, or drastically reduce, likely payouts over its running of detention centres.

In a separate case in the Supreme Court in 2017, involving four detainees who were tear-gassed, the government had offered payouts as high as $150,000 to each detainee to avoid the case going to court, only the offer to be rejected and for those four detainees to be awarded between $12,000 and $17,000.