Keith Hamburger reveals “disappointment and frustration” over Don dale Facilities during Royal Commission

FORMER chief minister Adam Giles asked Corrections Commissioner Mark Payne for an assurance that no one would die in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre during a crisis meeting

Keith Hamburger leaves the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory after giving evidence in the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT. PICTURE: Michael Franchi

FORMER chief minister Adam Giles asked Corrections Commissioner Mark Payne for an assurance that no one would die in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre during a crisis meeting two days after ABC Four Corners aired shocking footage of young people being mistreated in the facility.

Keith Hamburger, who authored an extensive review into corrections in the NT, gave evidence on the first day of public hearings in the royal commission into youth justice that he and Mr Payne were both asked by Mr Giles to guarantee that “no child would die in detention that evening”.

Mr Hamburger said neither he nor Mr Payne was able to give such an assurance.

“But (Mr Payne) did give a detailed response about the steps he had taken… to mitigate the risks and to ensure that as best as possible within the limitation of the facilities that he had that hopefully nobody would die tonight,” he said.

Mr Hamburger, whose report offered a scathing assessment of corrections in the Territory, said he was shocked such a facility existed “in this day and age”. He described his surprise to find that young people were being “kept in concrete cells”.

“It was a guarding environment, not a therapeutic environment,” he said.

“We didn’t hear any laughter from young people and it was not a happy place.”

“We didn’t see many people, because they were all locked away.”

Mr Hamburger spoke of his horror at hanging points around the centre and non-flame retardant bedding.

Such was his shock at conditions in the centre that he approached Corrections Commissioner Mark Payne with his concerns before the report was finalised.

“The whole impression was disrepair and despair, that’s how we felt, really,” he said.

Holes gouged into concrete walls by detainees showed inattentiveness from staff, he said.

Commissioner Margaret White refused an application by solicitors acting for the NT Government to have parts of Mr Hamburger’s statement to the commission critical of the then-government’s handling of the build of the Darwin Correctional Centre.

In his opening remarks, senior counsel assisting the commission Tony McAvoy said the commission would “break new ground”.

“There have been no examples around this world of a royal commission dealing with evidence from children currently in protection or detention,” he said.

“Royal commissions are generally retrospective and look at past failings. This is not the case here.

“We are dealing in real time with people currently in the systems we are focusing on.”

Mr McAvoy said steps would be taken to protect “vulnerable witnesses”.

“For many of these witnesses it will be the first time they have been given a voice,” he said.

“We have been heartened by their willingness to participate, their bravery and their conviction that other children won’t have to go through what have.”