The Northern Territory's refusal to let United Nations inspectors enter its prisons has intensified nationwide concern over detention conditions, prompting Senator Lidia Thorpe to accuse the government of blocking scrutiny because it knows it is "guilty of torture and abuse".
This week, reports revealed the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was denied access to all government-run facilities in the Northern Territory while attempting to assess Australia's compliance with international standards on the "deprivation of liberty".
The UN working group had announced in November it planned to visit the ACT, New South Wales and Western Australia, and was scheduled to arrive in the Northern Territory on 7 December. However, senior NT corrections officials have reportedly told staff they could not accommodate the delegation's request.
NT News also reported that police were told the inspectors would be unable to enter police watch houses.
Hiding torture
On Tuesday, Senator Thorpe — a long-standing critic of the CLP Government — said every government should welcome UN scrutiny. Instead, she argued, "we're watching them hide torture and abuse again".
"We've all seen the images of people locked in filthy, overcrowded cells in the NT," Senator Thorpe said.
"Across this country, children are being isolated for long periods, bound and hooded, women are shackled during childbirth, and people, including children, keep dying in custody."
NT Corrections Minister Gerard Maley said the UN's request could not be approved due to "operational capacity, safety and workforce resourcing priorities".
"Territory detention facilities operate under established, independent statutory oversight, with strong safeguards and accountability for all people in detention and custody."
Mr Maley said the government had worked hard in its 18 months in office to return prisons to operational capacity.
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No prisoner "should be held in such conditions"
His assurances sit at odds with a report released last month by acting ombudsman Bronwyn Haack, who called for all inmates held in NT watch houses to be removed "as a matter of urgency" and argued no body should be subject to the conditions currently seen in the facilities.
Ms Haack's investigation included images of 17 people crowded into a single Palmerston watch house cell, lying on floor mattresses, with one detainee sleeping between two toilets. She found that "prisoners were kept in these conditions for weeks" and that in both Palmerston and Alice Springs, "the only opportunity most Territory prisoners had to leave their crowded cells were to shower at most once every two days".
Access to drinking water — a core principle in custodial settings — was also inadequate. Several detainees said they had to drink from the water bubbler positioned above the toilet. Women reported being watched by male officers while showering.
Since the CLP won government last year on a community-safety platform, incarceration rates have surged. Corrections data shows the average prison population has risen by 15 per cent over the past year. With the age of criminal responsibility lowered to 10 and bail laws tightened, more than 1 per cent of Territorians are now imprisoned on any given day.
Nearly 90 per cent of detainees are Aboriginal.
Nationwide failings
Shadow attorney-general Chansey Paech said blocking the UN's inspection showed the government was hiding abuses inside NT prisons. The CEO of Change the Record — a not-for-profit advocating to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in prison — Jade Lane, said the decision reflected an escalating pattern of human rights violations nationwide, disproportionately affecting Indigenous people.
"Australia is violating human rights; and now states and territories are shutting the UN out to avoid accountability," Ms Lane said, noting Queensland and NSW had previously refused UN access to detention facilities.
"The Federal Government invited this UN delegation. Three days after I met with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at a civil society roundtable, the NT slammed the door in their face. This is a direct undermining of the Commonwealth's own human rights commitments."
Both Ms Lane and Senator Thorpe called on the Commonwealth to intervene, arguing that blocking the UN places Australia among nations it routinely criticises on the world stage.
"The Albanese government must step in," Senator Thorpe said. "The Commonwealth absolutely has the power to implement our international obligations by legislating national minimum standards for the criminal legal system. They must use this power."
Ms Lane agreed, saying governments across Australia were embracing "punitive and discriminatory 'tough on crime' lawmaking that targets children" while simultaneously shutting down scrutiny.
"This pattern is entrenched, racialised, and escalating; and these actions prove it," she said.
With AAP
