Matt Cunningham: NT leaders need to face the music and answer questions

Leadership is not an option when you’re in the top position, you must face up to the music

AT THE height of Victoria’s Covid crisis in 2020, Premier Daniel Andrews fronted the media for more than 100 days straight.

He didn’t just make a statement, he stood there, often for more than an hour, and took every question the journalists wanted to ask him.

If he couldn’t give an answer, he said so. Regardless of what you think of Andrews or his Government’s handling of the pandemic, he could never be accused of shirking the issue. It was a strong show of leadership at a time when his people were suffering.

Contrast the actions of Mr Andrews with the performance of Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker this past week.

Many people had questions after Constable Zach Rolfe was found not guilty of all charges, including murder, over the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker at Yuendumu.

Warlpiri want to know if they can get a fair go in the justice system?

They’re questioning whether police in remote communities should carry guns.

They want to know why Constable Rolfe spent more than two years free on bail and whether the same freedom would be offered to an Aboriginal man facing a murder charge?

They will no doubt have even more questions after the lifting of suppression orders in the Supreme Court yesterday.

Michael Gunner in Alice Springs with cabinet. Picture: Lee Robinson

The Police Association want to know why a constable was charged with the most serious crime available in our legal system without, in the words of Rolfe’s barrister David Edwardson QC, “any meaningful investigation”.

Mr Chalker could have answered some of these questions when he called a press conference last Friday afternoon, three hours after the jury’s not guilty verdict.

Instead, he gave one of the more bizarre statements ever seen in this jurisdiction, speaking about car accidents and house fires and “critical incidents” but failing to mention the words shooting, Yuendumu or Rolfe.

Then, after saying he wouldn’t prejudice the coronial inquiry, he offered this veiled warning:

“I look forward to our institutional response as part of the coronial inquest where the facts will come to the fore that will diminish a significant amount to the mis-truths and the rhetoric that is out there that has had no basis of foundation.”

If he had something to say he should have said it, otherwise he would have been better to say nothing at all.

Instead, he left the press conference without taking any questions.

Rolfe

If Mr Chalker’s intention was to quell the discontent with his own ranks and the Yuendumu community, he managed to do the opposite.

There were more questions after Northern Territory Police Association president Paul McCue addressed the media on Monday.

Documents obtained by the defence during discovery show Detective Sergeant Kieran Wells noted it was “extremely concerning that crucial elements of an extremely serious criminal/coronial investigation were being hastened for no discerning justifiable reason.”

Detective Sergeant Isobel Cummins who was directed to compile a brief for the DPP by 1pm on November 13, 2019, four days after the shooting, wrote she was “not comfortable with arrest and rushed process without full assessment of evidence and ability to investigate objectively”.

After Rolfe was charged Det-Sgt Wells noted: “Investigators on scene do not agree with course of action, both arrest element and charge.”

Why were police executives in such a rush to have Rolfe charged? Why were detectives working on the investigation over-ruled?

And, perhaps more concerningly, why did police issue a media release saying Rolfe had been charged with murder and given bail, while he was still sitting in the cells at the Darwin watch-house?

Little wonder by Tuesday morning there were calls for an independent investigation into the decision to charge Constable Rolfe with murder. (The same one the ICAC appears to have forgotten to do after former Commissioner Ken Fleming had to step down from an oversight role after taking to the microphone at a Black Lives Matter rally.)

But rather than acknowledge these legitimate concerns, Mr Gunner flipped the switch vitriol during his only public appearance in Darwin this week on Mix FM.

Asked by host Katie Woolf about an independent inquiry, Mr Gunner said the only people pushing for such a move were “conspiracy nutters”.

We didn’t hear from him again until he showed up at an invite-only press conference in Alice Springs yesterday

This was odd because on Wednesday the Government made a major announcement about the extension of the Covid public health emergency.

For the past two years, two people have been present every time the Government has made a major Covid announcement; Michael Gunner and Jamie Chalker.

But on Wednesday it was left to the Minister for Bad News Natasha Fyles to front up with Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie.

The failure of Mr Gunner and Mr Chalker to front up and take questions has allowed the racial tensions simmering in the wake of the Rolfe verdict to boil.

At a time when leadership was desperately needed, it was sadly missing.