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ABC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
How inquest into fatal police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker lays a path for Warlpiri control
Sitting around the campfire in the red dust of Yuendumu, Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves tells me stories of the ancient Warlpiri customs that created clear lines of authority, and then, about his old people who were forced to work on pastoral stations for meagre rations. In the shadow of the protection era (1890s-1950s), Warlpiri people lived as wards of the state — bound by invisible chains, forbidden to roam their homelands, and silenced from speaking their language. Generations have fought to reclaim control, and the community continues to demand the return of autonomy — something they say could prevent deaths in custody. "We want to control our business," Ned said. "We don't want Kardiya (non-Indigenous people) to come and tell us what to do; that's got to stop." It is the day after Coroner Elisabeth Armitage visited the community — three hours north-west of Alice Springs — to deliver her findings on the 2019 police shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker. In the glow of the central desert community's live music stage, Ned's face grows serious as a sad and soulful reggae song hums. He shares with me that as the six-year fight for justice for Walker draws to a close, he must wake up tomorrow and meet with lawyers for a new fight. His jaja (grandson), Kumanjayi White, another Warlpiri man who lived with cognitive disabilities, died while being apprehended by plain-clothed police on the floor of the confectionery aisle at the Alice Springs Coles in May. Exhausted does not begin to describe how Ned and his family are feeling, but they are also frustrated. Frustrated that his vision, resilience, and deep understanding of what is best for Yapa (his people) has been ignored for decades. The Walker Inquest found the constable who shot Walker in Yuendumu in 2019 and was acquitted of all charges, Zachary Rolfe, held racist views. Walker's death "was avoidable", it found, and "a stark example of officer-induced jeopardy." Judge Elisabeth Armitage identified "clear evidence of entrenched, systemic and structural racism" within the institution Rolfe worked for — the NT Police. This is not something you can fix overnight with the rollout of an anti-racism plan. Systemic change can take generations. Kumanjayi Walker's cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown, says asking the NT Police to become "safe" for Aboriginal people is unsustainable. "It's a band-aid solution, so I'd like to see a structure that replaces that altogether," Ms Fernandez-Brown said in Yuendumu last week. The Walker findings backed Aboriginal-led solutions and a return to Warlpiri controlling their own affairs. Judge Armitage called for the development of a 10-year youth strategy for Yuendumu, the expansion of night patrol services, a comprehensive review of available youth programs — including on-country rehabilitation and diversion options — and the potential establishment of a local leadership group to guide these efforts. "The solutions have already existed prior to the [2007 federal government] intervention," Ms Fernandez-Brown said. "We're hoping that these recommendations around community authority and a leadership group allow us to get back to that spot." In the wake of these findings, there is a unique opportunity for organisations and agencies to recognise Warlpiri leadership and build genuine partnerships, a move Ms Fernandez-Brown says will "prevent deaths in custody." The inquest into Kumanjayi Walker's death dug deep into a long history of colonial violence and the wounds it left behind. From the 1920s, hordes of gold prospectors and pastoralists moved to Warlpiri Country, putting strain on the only permanent water source, Pikilyi. Judge Armitage found that Warlpiri people were denied access to water and forced to work in conditions resembling slavery, with reports of people being "tied up and flogged," and women and girls raped and abducted. In 1928, the Coniston Massacre saw dozens, possibly hundreds, of Warlpiri, Anmatyerre, and Kaytetye people killed in state-sanctioned reprisals after the death of a dingo trapper. Led by a former WWI veteran turned NT police constable, the attacks went unpunished, with no convictions for any of the killings. The massacre lives on in Warlpiri memory, passed down through generations. Yuendumu became a rations depot in 1946 with the stated aim to "control the shift of Aborigines (sic) to towns", and some children were stolen from the community and institutionalised in hopes they would "integrate" into white society. Finally, in the 1970s, the idea returned that Warlpiri could lead. Federal government policies enabled community governance structures grounded in Warlpiri customary decision-making until the mid 90s, when Yuendumu had at least 13 community-controlled organisations. Judge Armitage heard evidence that this period was one of "vibrant … intercultural activity, involving Warlpiri and Western attitudes and cultural practices being worked into new and productive engagements, in the context of mutual respect relationships." She found that during the 90s, elders in Yuendumu had strong lines of communication with police. But she documented how the so-called "Intervention" systematically undermined and dismantled Warlpiri authority from 2007 onwards. It imposed compulsory income management, compulsory leasing of Aboriginal land, dispossessed traditional owners of recognition and authority, levied financial penalties for failure to comply with the Community Development Program, boosted police numbers, and brought powers allowing police to enter houses without a warrant. Community government councils were abolished by the NT government and amalgamated into eight centralised shires. Judge Armitage found this undercut Warlpiri authority and further diminished job opportunities. Housing was used as a practical example: instead of local workers fixing issues like a blocked toilet immediately, the centralised shire system left tenants waiting three to four months for minor repairs. The federal government's Intervention was meant to last for five years, but blew out another decade under the "Stronger Futures" legislation introduced in 2012. Judge Armitage heard evidence from associate professor Melinda Hinkson that, without consultation, the intervention's core measures snatched authority from traditional owners and were an increase in "the punitive governance and policing of the Warlpiri community by external authorities and officials". Kumanjayi Walker's family would have liked stronger recommendations about police accountability, but the question remains, what worth are such suggestions when the government is in no way legally obliged to implement them? Barrister John Lawrence SC, who didn't work on Kumanjayi Walker's case but represented families in many coronial inquests into Black deaths in custody and the royal commission into NT youth detention, said the inquest's value was in providing a comprehensive historical analysis of racism in the NT Police. "Its findings on that are unequivocal and damning: a force riddled with systemic racism which allowed a totally inappropriate man (Rolfe) into the force and who then permitted him and others to, it seems, have a ball at the expense of Aboriginal people," he said. "He should have been fired way before the killing incident." Rolfe has rejected the coroner's findings and says his actions were "never about race". He is considering appealing the inquest's findings. Judge Armitage called the racism within the NT Police "grotesque". Hearing this was validating for Kumanjayi Walker's family, but without police accountability reforms, Yuendumu is focusing on alternate ways they can avoid it happening again. Families see a clear path toward greater autonomy and believe that with increased resources and support, Yuendumu can shape a future where youth are no longer caught in the justice system, and where the excessive use of force by police against Aboriginal people is truly a thing of the past. "Our people have the solutions; we need to take back our rights to run our community and to have peace," Ned said. "If I could have one (recommendation implemented) today, it would be an independent ombudsman for NT police complaints, but we want investment in community and divestment from police," Ms Fernandez-Brown said. "We want that to be centred around Warlpiri and mob, by doing that it's going to prevent deaths in custody because there will be programs that offer alternative pathways." Our communities don't need saving. Our communities don't need saviours … and that is what Judge Elisabeth Armitage's 683-page report confirms.
ABC News
7 days ago
- ABC News
How the Yuendumu police shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker changed the NT
The sun is beginning to sink into the desert horizon when a team of pseudo-tactical cops — police dog in tow — roll in to Yuendumu, a tiny Aboriginal community three hours from Alice Springs. It's quiet in town on this Saturday night, November 9, 2019. There's a funeral happening at the cemetery. But it hasn't been this calm for a while — a string of violent break-ins targeting the community's health staff has scared the nurses into Alice Springs for the weekend, seeking respite. And as then-constable Zachary Rolfe and his Immediate Response Team (IRT) colleagues arrive at the police station, with their long-arm rifles and bean-bag shotguns; it's about to get a whole lot more chaotic. WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family. This story also contains racist and offensive language and images. The local sergeant, Julie Frost, is burnt out and overworked. She's called for back-up so her team can rest, and then tomorrow, at 5am, the out-of-town officers will join one of her officers, to arrest Kumanjayi Walker. It's a plan she's already discussed with his family, to allow him to take part in the funeral. Legally, the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man shouldn't be in the community this weekend, it's a breach of a court order. Culturally, he's required to return to bury his grandfather. Police tried to arrest him a few days ago, but he threatened them with an axe. Footage of that incident has already done the rounds at the Alice Springs Police Station, where officers can't believe the bush cops didn't shoot Mr Walker. Enter Mr Rolfe: a constable keen on "high adrenaline" jobs, with three years of policing under his belt and — a coroner has now found — a "tendency to rush in", with a "reluctance to follow rules". Confident in her plan for a safe 5am arrest, Sergeant Frost leaves the station in the hands of the IRT for the night, telling the visitors on her way out that if they do happen to come across Mr Walker that night, then "by all means, arrest him". Less than two hours later, Mr Walker takes his final breaths on the floor of a police cell, three gunshot wounds to his torso. The reaction was immediate. And divisive. The brand new NT police commissioner — sworn in two days after the shooting — travelled to Yuendumu with the chief minister to reassure the community the officer involved had been stood down, pending investigations into how a quiet night in community ended with a 19-year-old being shot by a police officer, inside his grandmother's home. Then-chief minister Michael Gunner, in a poorly phrased promise which haunted the rest of his political career, tried to explain there would be independent oversight of police, a coronial investigation, and that "consequences will flow" as a result. Four days later, Mr Rolfe was charged with murder after an investigation which many claimed didn't pass the pub test. An ICAC investigation later found no evidence of political interference in the investigation. For years, Warlpiri people grieved quietly, in their tiny town on the edge of the Tanami desert. Suppression orders protecting then-constable Rolfe's right to a fair trial prevented previous allegations of excessive use of force, perjury and his text messages from being published. Prosecutors tried to argue some of that evidence was proof of the officer's tendency to be violent towards Aboriginal men, fighting to tell the jury that a local court judge had found, months before the shooting, Mr Rolfe likely "deliberately" banged a man's head into the ground, then lied about it under oath. But Mr Rolfe's lawyers won that melee — one of many trial arguments which landed in their favour. Supreme Court Justice John Burns ruled the evidence was irrelevant to Mr Rolfe's decision to fire his Glock three times, in response to being stabbed in the shoulder by Mr Walker that night. Journalists were barred from writing about Mr Rolfe's history until after the jury had returned its not guilty verdict. Meanwhile, the details of Mr Walker's criminal history, his unsettled upbringing and health issues were splashed across the pages of national newspapers. "The way that he was portrayed was this really violent young man [who] was the reason for his own death, and we felt like we had no control over his story," his cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown, said. Duelling social media campaigns kept a divided audience up to date with a long and complicated court process over several years. "Justice For Walker" became a carefully curated platform for advocacy for the Yuendumu community, treading a fine line between calling for Mr Rolfe to be jailed, and not prejudicing a jury they had put their hopes in. "I Back Zach" produced stubby coolers, and later, a police officer was sacked over a "Blue Lives Matter" singlet referencing the shooting. A now-deleted, anonymously-run, Facebook page called "I Support Constable Zachary Rolfe" posted daily updates from inside the criminal trial. In March of 2022, more than two years after Mr Walker died, his family held their breath for almost six weeks as they gathered each day in Darwin's Supreme Court — more than a 1,000 kilometres from home — and stood in the same room as the man who took their loved one's life. Mr Rolfe sat in the public gallery while he was on trial for murder, as COVID-19 restrictions at the time forced half of the jury into the dock. Eventually, the Warlpiri mob watched the cop accused of murdering their loved one walk free from the Supreme Court — acquitted of all charges. A win for many in the police force, and the unions which backed him, which vehemently believed he should never have been charged in the first place. It was the end of one courtroom ordeal, but marked the beginning of the next three years for a community and a police force which hadn't even begun to heal their shattered relationship. Six months later, Mr Walker's family were back in another courtroom. Still hundreds of kilometres from home, and still calling for "Justice for Walker". Justice to them, however, could no longer look like Mr Rolfe going to jail. The coroner's court opened with an Acknowledgement of Country and an invitation for Mr Walker's loved ones to be heard. With the evidence live-streamed, translated into multiple Aboriginal languages and the coroner travelling to Yuendumu herself, the coronial inquest could not have been more different than the criminal trial. "It was identified very early in the inquest, I think, by the coroner herself, that a key factor here is this wasn't just two young men meeting in a house one night," Gerard Mullins KC, representing some of Mr Walker's family, said. "It was a history of both the Warlpiri people, and what they had been through historically, and also the Northern Territory police and their attitudes to Indigenous people." As she opened what was supposed to be a three-month investigation into the shooting, Judge Elisabeth Armitage asked herself one question: "Do I know the story of Kumanjayi Walker and Constable Zachary Rolfe? "Do you?" With a comforting smile from her bench overlooking courtroom one in the Alice Springs Local Court, Judge Armitage invited the 16 interested parties to "look a little deeper and listen a little longer". Almost three years later, the judge once again travelled down the Tanami Road into Yuendumu, with a 683-page report tucked under her arm. She addressed the community for almost an hour, in remarks which were also broadcast live on national television. Somehow, she managed to keep her voice from wavering, as she summarised the findings which will likely define her career. "Kumanjayi's death in Yuendumu on 9 November, 2019 was avoidable," she found. "Mr Rolfe was racist. "He worked in, and was the beneficiary of, an organisation with hallmarks of institutional racism." If a reckoning in the ranks of the Northern Territory Police Force wasn't required before, there was no escaping it now. "The fact that [racism] did exist and the fact that it was permitted and fostered is just not acceptable," Acting Commissioner Martin Dole said. "There's probably some feelings of hurt amongst the police force, there's probably some feelings of denial. After examining an 8,000-page download of Mr Rolfe's phone, the coroner found racial slurs were "normalised" between officers on the Alice Springs beat, with no disciplinary consequence. "I find that these and similar messages reveal the extent to which Mr Rolfe had dehumanised the largely Aboriginal population he was policing, his disinterest in the risk of injury associated with his hands on policing style, and the sense of impunity with which he approached the use of force," Judge Armitage wrote. While she said she could not find with "certainty" that Mr Rolfe's racist attitudes contributed to Mr Walker's death, she also could not rule it out. "That I cannot exclude that possibility is a tragedy for Kumanjayi's family and community who will always believe that racism played an integral part in Kumanjayi's death; and it is a taint that may stain the NT police," Jude Armitage wrote. But the coroner, as she had flagged from the very beginning, was looking deeper than Zachary Rolfe and Kumanjayi Walker. She found Mr Walker's problems began before he was even born, exposed to alcohol in utero and violence, trauma and neglect in his formative years. Despite being deeply loved — and now sorely missed — by his family, Mr Walker struggled at every turn. Mr Rolfe, the coroner found, was not just a "bad apple", but a product of an environment which fostered problematic attitudes and behaviour. "Grotesque" examples of racism within the force's most elite unit were ignored by the then-commissioner of NT police, Michael Murphy, and five senior officers insisted a so-called "C**n of the Year" award had no racist connotations. "That no police member who knew of these awards reported them, is, in my view, clear evidence of entrenched, systemic and structural racism within the NT Police," Judge Armitage found. "Yapa [Warlpiri people] have known that, we have felt that," Ms Fernandez-Brown said. Mr Rolfe rejected many of the coroner's remarks, particularly those which suggested he ignored his training and lied, when he claimed Mr Walker had reached for his gun during the fatal scuffle, and suggested he is considering seeking a judicial review in the Supreme Court. "Insofar as some may hold a view to the contrary, this was never about race," he said in a statement. The coroner's long-awaited findings were due to be handed down in June, but days before her scheduled trip to Yuendumu, the community was plunged into sorry business again. Another young Warlpiri man, Kumanjayi White, died in police custody on the floor of an Alice Springs supermarket. The delay meant the report was, somewhat ironically, delivered at the start of NAIDOC week, when the 2025 theme was "The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy". As Warlpiri kids on school holidays played ball games in the centre of the community, largely oblivious to the tragedy around them, the idea of what "Justice for Walker" looked like, was changing shape. "'Justice looks like putting trust back in us and not undermining the authority, wisdom, knowledge, power and most importantly the love that exists here," Ms Fernandez-Brown said. "Justice looks like people coming to that table and ensuring that they have a genuine intention to make sure this doesn't happen again."
ABC News
12-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker shows Australia needs 'comprehensive reform', UN says
The United Nations says Australia is facing a period of "soul-searching" and needs "comprehensive reforms" following the release of long-awaited findings from the inquest into the fatal police shooting of Indigenous man Kumanjayi Walker. Note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names of Indigenous people who have died, used with the permission of their families. Walker, 19, was shot dead by then-police officer Zachary Rolfe during an attempted arrest in the remote outback town of Yuendumu, in central Australia, in November 2019. Mr Rolfe was acquitted of murder, manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death by an NT Supreme Court jury in Darwin in 2022. He argued he fired the shots in self-defence after Mr Walker stabbed him in the shoulder with a pair of scissors. UN rights chief Volker Turk said the Northern Territory coroner's inquiry into Mr Walker's death "uncovers disturbing allegations of institutional racism in Northern Territory policing and use of excessive force". "Findings by coroner reinforce urgent need for comprehensive reforms to address injustice suffered by First Nations peoples," Mr Turk said on X. The findings were delivered on Monday, more than five years after the shooting, and after a nearly three-year inquiry. NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage found Mr Rolfe "was racist", and that the then-police officer worked in an organisation with the hallmarks of "institutional racism", warning that there was a "significant risk" that Mr Rolfe's racism and other attitudes affected his response "in a way that increased the likelihood of a fatal outcome". She found that she could not definitively rule that Mr Rolfe's racist attitudes contributed to Mr Walker's death, however she also said it could be not ruled out. "That I cannot exclude that possibility is a tragedy for Kumanjayi's family and community who will always believe that racism played an integral part in Kumanjayi's death; and it is a taint that may stain the NT Police," she said. Mr Rolfe was dismissed from the police force a year after his trial concluded for penning an open letter criticising the coronial process and upper echelons of the NT Police Force. He rejected the coroner's findings around racism and misconduct while on duty and is considering appealing the findings. Mr Walker is one of 598 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died in custody in Australia since 1991, when detailed records began. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Mr Turk's spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, said she expected the inquiry to "lead to quite a bit of soul-searching by the authorities to take measures". Australian authorities should evaluate whether "further independent oversight" was needed, she said, also calling for "awareness-raising among police officers of the dangers of profiling, the dangers of unconscious bias". ABC/Wires
The Guardian
11-07-2025
- The Guardian
For the remote community of Yuendumu, there's no justice until its people stop dying
As the sun starts to fall over Yuendumu, boys descend on the football oval. They take miraculous shots at goal from the boundary, puffs of orange dust sent into the air with every kick. Earlier that day, with the desert sun still high in a cloudless sky, the Northern Territory coroner, Elisabeth Armitage, spoke in the centre of a semi-circle of plastic chairs about another Warlpiri boy, Kumanjayi Walker. She spoke of how his struggles in childhood led to trouble as a young man, trouble that led constable Zachary Rolfe, who knew none of the hardship of Walker, but had been shaped by his experiences nonetheless, to Yuendumu. 'The life experiences of Mr Rolfe are far removed from those of Kumanjayi Walker, the young man he killed during the ill-fated arrest,' Armitage said on Monday. 'That is part of the reason why neither understood why or how the other would react that day.' From the middle of the local oval you can see the red house, house 511, where Walker was shot three times by then-NT Police constable Zachary Rolfe in November 2019. Rolfe was found not guilty in March 2022 of charges of murder and manslaughter relating to Walker's death. Yuendumu is processing the coroner's 683-page findings from the inquest into Walker's death, while dealing with the death in custody of another of its young men, Walker's cousin, Kumanjayi White. White, 24, lost consciousness in the Coles supermarket in Alice Springs, surrounded by juice and chocolates, after off-duty police officers restrained him on the ground. His death is being investigated by NT police, despite calls from his family and the federal Indigenous affairs minister for an independent inquiry. Like Walker, who Armitage found was disabled, White too had disabilities and was an NDIS recipient. The remote community is trying to stay strong, buoyed up by the future – and the possibility, as outlined in Armitage's recommendations – of moving closer to local autonomy, such as community leaders say existed before the Howard government's 2007 intervention. 'The coroner talked about the racists in the Northern Territory … she has told the truth,' Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, senior Warlpiri elder and the grandfather of White, said. 'In future, when we work with the police, it needs to be two ways of working and understanding. 'The First Nations, Indigenous people, we have the first solution. We need to take back our rights, our rights to run the community and to have peace … and run business … ourselves.' Sitting to Hargraves' right as he spoke to visiting reporters was Samara Fernandez-Brown, Walker's cousin. While the pair spoke briefly on the day the findings were handed down, they spoke at greater length the next day. 'We are in a really interesting position now, where as a community we can move towards the future. And like Ned was saying, it's now our opportunity to take back control,' Fernandez-Brown said on Tuesday. 'There were recommendations around reforming authority within Yuendumu that existed prior to the intervention that stripped our community of its power. 'We look forward to having those conversations and seeing … how community is going to thrive under control of Warlpiri again and that's something that we really, really look forward to.' The pair spoke in the grounds of PAW Media, a community organisation. Shortly before they started, local kids filled the air with keyboards and drumming, jams starting again and again in the music room underneath the large antenna in the centre of town. 'No music for a little,' Hargraves shouts over his shoulder before the press conference, which he started in Warlpiri. 'We'll only be really quick. You can rip the guts out of it later.' As they spoke, loud bangs echoed through the town. It was one week after Territory Day, the only day Territorians can buy fireworks, and some that were left over were being ignited. There were also events for Naidoc week, which fell during school holidays this year. Local girls showed off new fake nails from a hair and beauty clinic that had been held in town, and makeshift games of basketball and cricket went on outside the local stadium. The Warlukurlunga Gallery, on the eastern edge of town, teamed with women painting. Others came and went, checking on their work, and showing it off, or proudly pointing out the canvases of their daughters. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Armitage recommended creating a 10-year plan for youth in Yuendumu; an expanded night patrol in the remote community; and a review of the availability of youth services, including the provision of on-country rehabilitation and diversion services. She recommended that the Northern Territory government consult with the Yuendumu community to determine whether there is broad support for the establishment of a single, elected, remunerated, leadership group in Yuendumu as a means of providing community control over the provision of services. The model was proposed by the Parumpurru committee, made up of Yuendumu residents, who were represented at the inquest. If the creation of a leadership group was supported by the community, then Armitage recommended that the NT government implement it, including by providing governance training and support, and consider specific requirements for good governance. It should also work with the group's elected leadership to co-design its terms of reference. The NT's Country Liberal party, which won government last year after a campaign marked by promises to crack down on crime, said it 'welcomes the conclusion of this lengthy process, which has taken a significant toll on the community and the NT Police Force'. 'The government will now take the time to consider the findings and recommendations, noting that much has changed over the last six years,' a government spokesperson said. Deep in the coronial findings were also several matters that helped the family reckon with the shooting that night. This included a finding from Armitage that she was 'firmly satisfied that the account given by Mr Rolfe about Kumanjayi's hand being on his Glock cannot be accepted'. This was the account Rolfe had given for the first time during his murder trial, and had again given evidence about during the inquest, in which he alleged Walker had touched his gun shortly before he fired it. The findings that Rolfe was racist, and not a 'bad apple', but rather part of an organisation infected with institutional racism, also gave the family some comfort, even if Armitage could not clearly say Walker died because of this racism. Armitage noted, with some irony, that after Rolfe resisted racism being part of the inquest for two years, he then gave evidence which uncovered 'grotesque' racist awards within the force's tactical officers. Rolfe, for his part, released a statement via his lawyer, Luke Officer, saying he 'does not accept many of the findings' and suggesting the NT supreme court should consider the proper scope of inquests, accusing the coroner of going beyond her remit. He specifically rejected her finding that he was racist, saying: 'Insofar as some may hold a view to the contrary, this was never about race'. Counsel for the NT Police also argued against the breadth of the inquiry, writing in their final submission that the coroner did not have powers to conduct 'a roving royal commission'. Armitage wrote that the Coroners Act required her to make recommendations to prevent future deaths in similar circumstances, and granted a 'broad discretion as to the matters to be considered'. The family were concerned, however, that Armitage did not make specific recommendations to reform police accountability, given her findings about Rolfe's previous uses of force. She was satisfied that on at least five occasions, he used a level of force that was unnecessary, had concerns about the force used on a further two occasions, and found there were other instances where the use of force was avoidable. 'There were instances where Mr Rolfe used force without proper regard for the risk of injury to persons, all of whom were Aboriginal boys or men, and significant injuries were caused to suspects because of his use of force,' Armitage found. More than three years ago, when Hargraves spoke outside the tall white walls of the NT supreme court in Darwin, after Rolfe's acquittal, he shouted: 'When are we going to get justice? When?' On Tuesday, he said it was hard to know if he was any closer to justice. 'We were coming that close to end it,' he said. 'But again, something happens. Another one gets killed.' In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support. Other international helplines can be found at
ABC News
10-07-2025
- ABC News
Youth justice advocates warn Northern Territory is ‘winning race to the bottom' ahead of more reforms
As the dust settles on the long-awaited coronial findings into the death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, which detailed his troubled history with the youth justice system, agencies and advocates say they are grappling with how to ensure more young lives aren't lost. WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family. NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage on Monday handed down her long-awaited findings into the death of the Yuendumu teenager, who was fatally shot during an attempted arrest in November 2019. She made findings about Mr Walker's upbringing in remote central Australia — plagued by poverty and health issues — and his struggle to cope at school due to his disabilities, as well as periods of time spent in the criminal justice system. In the almost three years since the high-profile inquest began, the landscape of the Northern Territory's justice system has undergone significant changes. The age of criminal responsibility has been lowered from 12 back to 10, and a raft of bail reforms have been implemented. And when parliament resumes at the end of this month, the NT's Country Liberal Party (CLP) government is expected to introduce further changes to the Youth Justice Act — many of which have not yet been announced. The coroner's 680-page report is now being examined closely by those in the youth justice space in the hopes the report will signal to the NT government the need for a change in direction. The coroner's report canvassed Kumanjayi Walker's early life, which was marred by repeated exposure to domestic violence, substance abuse and neglect. Judge Armitage said Mr Walker was first charged with criminal offending at just 13 years old, marking the beginning of years in and out of custody. By age 16, he had been arrested for domestic assaults on his teenage partner and was battling addiction. NT Children's Commissioner Shahleena Musk said Mr Walker's story reflected the experiences of many children caught in the justice system. "Many of them are in care or are well-known to the child protection system, many of them present with unmet disability, mental health and trauma needs," she said. While the coroner acknowledged it was beyond the scope of the inquest to make recommendations directed at implementing change in youth detention centres, she noted: "It seems reasonably clear that detention neither deterred nor rehabilitated Kumanjayi". Northern Australia Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Anthony Bevan said the coroner's findings sent a clear message. "We've clearly seen from this inquest that deterrence and rehabilitation doesn't work in prison, doesn't work in custody," he said. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services general manager Melissa Clarke said an emphasis on punitive measures for young offenders was a growing trend across Australia. She said in the territory, lowering the age of criminal responsibility, tougher bail laws and overcrowded prisons were particular concerns. Ms Clarke said recent changes to bail in the NT and New South Wales, as well as Queensland's recent "adult time for adult crime" reforms, flew in the face of recommendations from previous inquiries and the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. "Prisons are outrageously full, violating international law, and yet we have politicians doubling down," she said. Mr Bevan said tougher bail measures had led to a steep increase in the number of young people remanded in custody in the NT. "With the bail changes that came in, in April [2025], we've seen more than a doubling of the number of young people being held in custody," Mr Bevan said. Between periods in custody, Mr Walker had access to several rehabilitation and diversion programs including at the primary youth service in Yuendumu, the Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation (WYDAC), which was defunded in 2022 — something the coroner described as "particularly dispiriting". Among her 32 formal recommendations, the coroner called for the "review and expansion of services targeting engagement with young offenders, young people with disability, children who have dropped out of school, with a view to reducing offending behaviour". Another recommendation was for more rehabilitation and diversion services for at-risk young people in remote communities. The NT children's commissioner and heads of Aboriginal legal services said they hoped the report would signal to the NT government the need for a change in approach. "There's clearly a belief that they've got a mandate to be tougher on these young people, but the evidence goes against that," Ms Musk said. In a statement, an NT government spokesperson said the CLP had been "focused on reducing crime and restoring community safety". The spokesperson also pointed to the government's 2025-26 infrastructure budget which "includes support for youth diversion and homelessness services".
