'Justice' in the NT.

Because our Dad loved (and served) the Territory and justice, us 'kids' felt we should add our voice to calling out policies and practices that are making it a more dangerous place. So we wrote to the PM. (Our letter is below).

That also led to an interview with Fran Kelly on the ABC which you can hear with this link...

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-radio-national-hour/nt-indigenous-incaceration-surging/105638628

The Hon Anthony Albanese MP

August 7, 2025

Dear Prime Minister

Protecting Human Rights in the Northern Territory

Our father, James Henry Muirhead AC QC, had a passion for the Northern Territory and its people. He also had a passion for justice and genuine, effective crime prevention. These passions defined his career and his legacy, particularly through his lead role on the NT Supreme Court, The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and as Administrator of the Northern Territory.

Knowing this, we feel compelled to write to you in his name, urging you to intervene—even to consider using your Federal Powers under Section 122 of the Constitution—to override the regressive actions currently being pursued by the Northern Territory Government

These actions, supposedly in the name of ‘public safety’ include, for example:

-          lowering the age of criminal responsibility to just 10 years old,

-          expanding mandatory sentencing,

-          arming public security and transit officers,

-          subjecting children and adults alike to overcrowded and degrading detention conditions,

-          reintroducing the use of spit hoods, and

-          continuing policies that have contributed to the world’s second-highest incarceration rate.

These measures are not only ineffective, they are demonstrably harmful. They punish the vulnerable, fuel cycles of trauma and recidivism, and ignore decades of research into what actually works to build safer communities.

Public safety matters. We are well aware of the understandably high levels of anger and fear in the Territory, arising from some shocking acts of violence and criminality. Its Government is fully justified in striving to address this – but in an effective way. That will, of course, require a robust and accountability-based justice system.  But human rights abuses will only make it worse.

A justice system that ignores the developmental needs of children and disregards rehabilitation is not a justice system; it is a mechanism for generating despair, division and hostility. There is no place for it in the civil society that Australia strives to be.   It is well evidenced that lasting change will only be achieved through a coordinated and largely community based approach grounded in respect, partnership and accountability.

On behalf of all Australians the Federal Government has a moral responsibility to act when a territory government fails to uphold these principles.

In his RCADIC Interim Report (1989), Dad emphasised the urgent need to address the underlying issues that lead to incarceration. “The over-representation of Aboriginal people in our prisons and lockups is a consequence of history, of appalling neglect, of ignorance, and of traditional perceptions of ‘the Aboriginal problem’ and the way it should be coped with." And he warned: “It will be unfortunate if the work of this Commission is impeded by narrow, selfish or political considerations. ”

Yet that is exactly what we are seeing now. Despite knowing full well that punitive measures alone will fail, the NT Government is responding to public fears by adopting policies that can only be about optics rather than outcomes. These policies deepen community division, undermine trust, and ultimately actually reduce public safety.

The NT Government’s current course of action will cause lasting harm—not only to the individuals caught up in the system but to the wellbeing of all Territorians, and to the reputation of our nation as a whole.  The measures flagrantly ignore the findings of two Royal Commissions (including the more recent Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT.) It might be said that—if we refuse to heed such Commissions—they are no more than expensive distractions.

Given the Territory Government’s apparent unwillingness or inability to pursue effective approaches while protecting the human rights of all its people, we urge you to use all power that you have to intervene.

Yours sincerely

Janet ,Richard, Bill and Tim Muirhead