Remote communities’ residents deserve better, says Zachary Rolfe

The former police officer defended the words he used to describe the ‘horrible state of affairs’ he witnessed in the aftermath of rioting.

Relatives of Kumanjayi Walker outside of Alice Springs Local Court in 2019.

Former police officer Zachary Rolfe has defended calling Aboriginal communities “shit”, saying remote communities in the Northern Territory are “like a third world in Australia” and people should not turn a blind eye or romanticise them.

Mr Rolfe made the remarks at the inquest of Kumanjayi Walker, the 19-year-old Warlpiri man he shot and killed at the remote community of Yuendumu on November 9, 2019.

His evidence on Monday sent shockwaves through the Northern Territory police when he made a series of detailed allegations about racism in the force, including that racist language was rife in the NT Police including in the upper ranks. He said the elite Territory Response Group had for years given out an annual “coon of the year award” to the police officer “exhibiting the most coon like behaviour”. This prompted police commissioner Michael Murphy to hold a press conference on Tuesday to announce an inquiry. He said he was unaware of the awards or that racist language was common.

“I do not hear those comments and I know our management teams don’t,” Mr Murphy told reporters.

“We’ve got really good people, really good men and women across the Northern Territory police who do a fantastic job every day and work tirelessly to protect Territorians and all the cultures across the territory.”

On his second day in the witness box on Tuesday, Mr Rolfe told Peggy Dwyer SC - counsel assisting the coroner - that he felt she was trying to attack him over text messages he wrote to friends and family from Borraloola in March, 2019. Mr Rolfe was sent there temporarily as a member of the Alice Springs-based immediate response team in the wake of rioting. The inquest heard the community was peaceful at the time. He was enjoying the quiet and reading Jordan Petersen’s “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos”.

“The losers up here are being nice to each other while we are around,” he wrote in one message.

Mr Rolfe told the inquest he meant that the rioters were losers, not the entire community.

In another message read out to the inquest, Mr Rolfe wrote: “the community is shit though it would be good to come back to Alice”.

Dr Dwyer asked Mr Rolfe: “Is that how you and other officers - constables, senior constables, probationary constables - spoke about Aboriginal bush communities in Alice Spings? Shit communities?”

Mr Rolfe replied: “Yes they’re in a horrible state of affairs and they need to be better. It’s like third world in Australia.

Former NT police officer Zachary Rolfe after day one of him giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

Dr Dwyer asked Mr Rolfe: “What do you think of the use of that language and way of describing Aboriginal communities? Do you see it as problematic when you have time to reflect on it as a more mature man?”

Mr Rolfe replied: “I see it as problematic when people turn a blind eye to the problems happening in community and the way in which these people are being forced to live, and romaticising the notion.

“I see it as problematic when you’re trying to attack me and turn a blind eye to the problems out there,” he said.

Dr Dwyer questioned Mr Rolfe about some of the 20,000 messages from his phone during the three years he was stationed in Alice Springs, including derogatory remarks about women he worked with.

In one message, Mr Rolfe sent a colleague a photo of Danny Devito in costume at The Penguin in the Batman movie and wrote: “literally 50 per cent of the women at our work. Girls shaped like this talk the most shit”.

Mr Rolfe told the inquiry he was “talking rubbish” and “shit talking” but he had formed the view that overweight police were a problem regardless of their gender. He had high expectations of what police should be capable of, he said.

“I was working with a few police officers who were overweight,” he said.

“Private conversations like this are a way in which people vent.”

Mr Rolfe gave the example of a young doctor who realised he was having a heart attack while on Mt Gillen in Alice Springs.

Two police attended but one was too overweight to leave the carpark or “they would end up with a second casualty”.

By the time the other officer reached the doctor, that officer was too puffed to help. By then the doctor had already encountered a teenage girl at the summit and given her instructions before he went unconscious. The out of breath police officer could only watch as the 18-year-old did the CPR on the doctor.

“This is what I’m talking about,” he said.

On November 0, 2019, Mr Rolfe had been trying to arrest Walker when he shot him three times. Walker had stabbed him in the shoulder with scissors. Mr Rolfe was found not guilty on the charge of murdering Walker in 2022, six months before the coronial inquest began.