‘You start thinking about what’s changed and it seems to me not much has changed’: Mick Gooda responds to damning Alice Springs crime report

THE Co-Commissioner of the 2016/17 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT said it appeared “not much has changed” with youth offending following a damning, televised national report on crime in Alice Springs

THE Co-Commissioner of the 2016/17 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory said it appeared “not much has changed” with youth offending following a damning, televised national report on crime in Alice Springs.

Former Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda, in an interview with A Current Affair following the program’s report on crime in Alice Springs, said it appeared little had changed in the space of offending and youth justice since the commission findings were handed down.

“(Watching the report) It’s sort of reliving what we went through in the Royal Commission and watching that up close, and you start thinking about what’s changed and it seems to me not much has changed,” he said.

Mr Gooda continued saying offenders needed to be held accountable depending on the circumstances.

“There has to be judgments made about each individual case and, and that’s around community safety, and really not lock kids up unless we really need to,” he said.

“I’m not arguing against not locking anyone up at all, but we’ve got to keep that for the ones that are the most dangerous out there.”

When asked how parents could be held accountable, Mr Gooda said working with them was key.

“We’ve got to work with parents and tell them what their responsibilities are,” he said.

“We’ve got to empower those to actually step in and intervene when the parents aren’t meeting their responsibilities. Let’s use our culture to the benefit of our kids rather than just as something we should be ignoring.”

Mr Gooda said the problem of youth offending could be fixed but it needed to be a combined effort.

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“The community both Indigenous non-Indigenous in Alice Springs have got to come together and start saying what they think is acceptable, and that’s got to be supported by both governments,” he said.

“The governments pull all the levers on this. They have the control over the justice system they have the control over police, they have the control over alcohol.

“If it was up to me I’d be pulling the community together and saying this is what our expectations are in here and Alice Springs and work with government to make it happen.”