NT police commissioner promises ‘cultural reform’, after Aboriginal police officers lodge human rights complaint
In short:
Lawyers have lodged a human rights complaint against the NT government and Police Commissioner Michael Murphy on behalf of three serving Aboriginal police officers.
The complainants claim they experienced racial vilification, derision and an unequal pay system over a 20-year period while serving as Aboriginal Community Police Officers.
What’s next?
Commissioner Murphy will not comment directly on the case, but says he is committed to delivering cultural reform within NT Police.
The Northern Territory’s police commissioner has reiterated his commitment to “cultural reform” within NT Police, after three serving Aboriginal police officers lodged a human rights complaint alleging racial vilification and unequal pay.
Sydney-based law firm, Levitt Robinson, announced on Friday it had lodged a complaint against the NT government and Commissioner Michael Murphy with the Australian Human Rights Commission, on behalf of three currently serving Aboriginal police officers.
In a statement, the lawyers allege unnamed officers experienced racial vilification, derision and an unequal pay system as Aboriginal Community Police Officers (ACPOs) over a 20-year period.
ACPOs are uniformed sworn police officers who work closely with local Indigenous communities as part of their policing duties.
Levitt Robinson partner Dana Levitt said the firm was approached by about 20 current and former ACPOs to lodge a representative complaint on their behalf.
“This is about Aboriginal police officers and the casual and blatant racism they faced on a daily basis while going about their job,” she said.
She said most of the officers said they joined the police force to help their community, but claimed they were “subject to racism themselves, or saw racism being dealt out to the community”.
The firm said it would seek damages and compensation for “pain and suffering, which they allege has been caused by systematic racism in the Northern Territory Police Service”.
The lawyers plan to pursue the matter in the Federal Court if mediation is unsuccessful.
The complaint follows Commissioner Murphy’s announcement of a new “anti-racism strategy” at last month’s Garma Festival, where he apologised to Indigenous Territorians for the “past harms and injustices” caused by members of NT Police.
Although Commissioner Murphy refrained from commenting directly on the ACPOs’ complaint, he said it was “a positive step for NT Police that members have the confidence to speak up about issues such as racism”.
“We are invested in cultural reform and continuing to make progress for a safe workplace and investment in leadership and pathways for all our employees, for a safer Territory,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Commissioner Murphy’s Garma apology followed damaging allegations of racist behaviour and attitudes within NT Police at a long-running coronial inquest into the 2019 shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu.
The inquest heard a series of racist awards were handed out among members of an elite policing unit — which Commissioner Murphy admitted he knew about at the time, but didn’t act upon.
In a statement, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the complainants’ claims “look to the past, and will be dealt with by the Human Rights Commission as appropriate”.
“My focus for the NT Police Force is on its future and making sure our hardworking force has the support, resources and powers it needs to keep Territorians safe,” she said.
NT Police racism review stalled
The Northern Territory’s local Anti-Discrimination Commission was tasked by the previous Labor government to conduct an independent review of NT Police’s mechanisms for addressing and responding to racism within the force.
NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Jeswynn Yogaratnam said the commission had planned to canvas the presence of inequalities such as those raised in the complaint, including in relation to promotions, recruitment, disciplinary action and racial vilification in the force.
“It’s so important for Commissioner Murphy’s Garma apology to have traction, to have an independent agency like ours to action some of that context of racism within NT Police,” he said.
But he said funding negotiations stalled the review prior to the election.
Commissioner Yogaratnam said he had requested clarity over the funding’s future in an email to Ms Finocchiaro.
Ms Finocchiaro would not say whether her government would continue that funding when asked by the ABC on Saturday.
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