$75 million Royal Commission left the Gunner Government an impossible mission, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

THE $75 million Royal Commision into youth justice in the Territory left the Gunner Government an impossible mission, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

Smoke pours from inside the Don Dale centre after parts of the facility were set alight during a riot. Picture: Keri Megelus

• MATT Cunningham: The royal commission was a waste of money
• DON Dale: New site for youth justice facility at Holt

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IT’S almost two years since the circus left town.

The one that arrived with a snob of southern lawyers and media consultants paid $1100-a-day and departed two years and $75 million later with a document it described as a “roadmap” for fixing our youth justice issues.

Yet today our youth justice system is arguably in a worse place than it was before we held a frightfully expensive inquiry into fixing it.

Now, as community concern grows after a string of serious crimes involving teenagers, we seem to have decided that Michael Gunner is single-handedly responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. The Chief Minister has copped it from all quarters in the past two weeks. But what – in all seriousness – was his Government supposed to do?

When it handed down its final report, the Royal Commission into Child Protection and Detention set the Government an impossible mission.

The Government was left in a damned-if-it-does, dammed-if-it-doesn’t position.

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If it had ignored the royal commission completely it would have been pilloried by left-wing lawyers and non-government organisations.

Or it could have adopted the recommendations in full and been torched by a large section of the community who believe it’s the victims of crime – not the offenders – who should be at the front of the Government’s decision-making.

Instead, the Government has tried to find a reasonable middle ground, and now finds itself under attack from both sides. It’s been criticised by the left for failing to adopt a recommendation to lift the age of criminal responsibility, and smashed by the right for implementing changes to the Youth Justice Act that have made it harder for police to arrest young offenders.

It faced a fierce campaign from the right over its plans to build a new youth detention centre at Pinelands (in line with the royal commission’s recommendations), then copped a walloping from the left when it tore up those plans and moved the site out to Holtze, next to the adult prison (and directly against a royal commission recommendation).

Smoke is seen pouring from the Don Dale detention centre during a riot. Picture: Keri Megelus

It followed a direction to remove the use of restraints in youth detention, then had to rush through legislation to reinstate them as its youth justice officers faced some horrendous attacks and a detainee had his cell set on fire.

The royal commission recommendations that have perhaps caused the most community concern are the 43 listed in Chapter 25 under the heading “The path into detention”.

These changes have made it far more difficult for police to apprehend young offenders, and to remove repeat offenders from the streets.

Senior police have privately expressed their frustration at picking up the same kids night after night, then letting them go again to do it all again tomorrow. They say it’s a very small group who are responsible for the vast majority of the offending.

This perhaps helps to explain why the Government can claim its victims conferencing is seeing a reduction in recidivism, yet the public feels instances of youth crime are on the rise.

It’s the same small group doing it over and over.

But as the Opposition criticises the Government for watering down the Youth Justice Act, it might pay for them to remember that it is acting on the advice of a royal commission that was called for by a CLP chief minister and announced by a Liberal prime minister within hours of a television show that most Territorians now believe was a bit of a hatchet job.

Some of the Government’s actions deserve serious criticism.

Its treatment of former Don Dale superintendent Victor Williams was nothing short of disgraceful.

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And its decision to block former Corrections Commissioner Ken Middlebrook’s return to the Corrections Department (he was found by an independent panel to be the outstanding application for the superintendent’s position at the Darwin Correctional Centre but not given the job) on what appear to political grounds was petty at best, and warrants further investigation.

But overall, it’s difficult to see how any government was supposed to play the hand that this one has been dealt.

In fact, the Government has set about major reform – outside of the scope of the royal commission – that will likely do more to address youth crime in the long run than anything contained in the commission’s 225 recommendations. Its plans to see children are properly supported from their mother’s pregnancy right through the first 1000 days of their life – if done properly – will have far more impact than any attempt to turn around the life of a teenager who has already gone off the rails. But the results of this work won’t be known until long after this Government has left office.