The Australian Human Rights Commission has cautiously welcomed an inquiry into juvenile detention in the Northern Territory but Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissioner Mick Gooda fought back tears as he questioned what it might achieve.
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An emotional Mr Gooda spoke of his horror at seeing teenage boys being sprayed with tear gas and hooded and restrained at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin.
The vision, aired on the ABC on Monday, compelled Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to announce a royal commission into the Northern Territory's youth justice system.
Mr Gooda said the footage proved little had changed in the Northern Territory despite a royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody 25 years ago, an inquiry into child protection in the Northern Territory 10 years ago and three separate investigations into the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.
"Our people have known about things like this . . . to see it laid bare in front of us must be a wake up call to everyone in Australia that something has got to be done about the way in which we lock our people up in this country, particularly the way we lock our kids up," he said. "What we have to do now is make sure this makes a difference."
The minister in charge of corrections, John Elferink, was dumped from that post on Tuesday but Mr Gooda warned further abuses would occur unless the Northern Territory government to start listening to its indigenous population.
"The modus operandi of the Northern Territory government is this: shoot the messenger, discredit the report and demonise the kids so people think it's OK for that treatment to occur," he said. "Well, I'll tell you right now, it's not OK for that to happen to any child in this country. Enough's enough. Start listening to us. If they don't we'll see more repeats of this happening."
Mr Gooda said he hoped a royal commission would lead to an overhaul of the youth justice system to ensure the protection of children's rights.
"This is a hard day for me, it's a hard day for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, it's a hard day for all Australians," he said.
"Something good has got to come out of this. If it doesn't we will be judged as a nation and a very poor nation."
President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Gillian Triggs said she hoped the inquiry would result in the closure of Don Dale and greater focus on rehabilitation of juvenile offenders.
"When we abdicate that responsibility simply to an institutional warehousing of children and we put them in the care and control of people who manifestly lack the skills to assist them we are obviously in trouble," she said.
She suggested the royal commission could be broadened to include juvenile justice facilities in other states.
Figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show the juvenile prison population has declined slightly over the past five years with about 900 children in detention on any given day.
National Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell said she was appalled by conditions at Don Dale when she inspected the facility.
"My lasting impression is of cage wire and cement," she said. "It's not a suitable place for children. There are cultural issues in that facility and in the juvenile justice system which means there is a pervasive sense of violence and use of force and isolation routinely. This all creates a powder keg in there."
