The Aboriginal peak body in the Northern Territory has condemned Police Commissioner Michael Murphy for covering up racist awards handed out by police officers and later lying about it, calling for an “urgent independent review” of systemic racism in the NT Police force and questioning why the Lawler Labor Government has continued to minimise the “ongoing impact of racism”.
Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT issued a public statement on Monday stating that the ongoing situation involving revelations of racism in the NT Police force at the Kumanjayi Walker inquest and the lack of action was “unacceptable”, which amounted to “gaslighting” Aboriginal Territorians who have experienced racism.
APONT – which is comprised of NAAJA, land councils, the Aboriginal Medical Service Alliance NT and other groups – has called for a public apology from Mr Murphy, as well as Chief Minister Eva Lawler and Police Minister Brent Potter for failing to properly acknowledge the evidence of ongoing racism in the police force.
“This situation is unacceptable. We expect better from the NT Police,” the statement said.
“Aboriginal people turn to the police for safety, protection and understanding at critical points in their lives. Instead, we experience racism, ridicule and dehumanisation.
“NT Police should not tolerate racism or attempts to deny it, this denial, is in and of itself, racism.
“Despite recent comments from Chief Minister Eva Lawler minimising the ongoing impact of racism in the police force, racism doesn’t appear or disappear overnight. Without significant efforts by key institutions to address systemic racism, it becomes normalised.”
APONT added that a proper independent review must be urgently undertaken with the terms of reference explicitly addressing systemic racism, while “we await the outcome and determinations of the Kumanjayi Walker inquest to understand how racism potentially played a role in the events leading up to and following the death of Mr Walker”.
It was revealed at the inquest last week that Mr Murphy was made aware of racist awards handed out by the police’s TRG unit last August but did not take any action at that time to investigate the racism allegations despite being made aware at least 100 officers knew about them and had evidence.
Instead of investigating, Mr Murphy covered up the awards and then lied to the public in February about when he first learned of the awards, the day after Zach Rolfe revealed their existence at the coronial.
Mr Murphy was also forced to explain why a month after covering up the awards he moved to overturn police disciplinary action against an acting senior sergeant who had shared a photo of a topless Indigenous woman to a police chat group, which involved racist and misogynistic comments.
Mr Murphy explained that he was “regrettable” he didn’t refer the racist award certificates to police’s Professional Standards Command but that he was “too busy” when he first learned of them and that if he had the disciplinary matter again he would “probably” uphold PSC’s original decision.
The next day Ms Lawler said she supported Mr Murphy “100 per cent” and that he had “provided an explanation around what occurred”.
She also claimed at one point that Mr Murphy would stamp out racism in the police force “if there is any racism”.
Ms Lawler also played down the extent of the racism exposed in the police force during the inquest, suggesting that police just wanted “to move … forward rather than looking back to stories from the early 2000s”, despite the racist awards continuing until 2022.
“The Chief Minister must show leadership and apologise to Aboriginal Territorians for the distress caused by the recent public commentary made by the NT Police Commissioner, the Minister for Police, and herself, and for failing to address long-standing systemic institutionalised racism in the NT Police Force,” APONT said.
“To echo the Member for Mulka, Yingiya Mark Guyula, we need strong leadership and ‘real action to change a culture than normalises racism and dehumanises people’.”
APONT also raised concerns with recent “curfew” laws introduced by the Lawler Government that override the Anti-Discrimination Act and gives the Police Commissioner the power to order emergency situations targeting particular groups of people.
“This power to discriminate within an environment where the NT Police Force is accused of racism is deeply concerning,” it said.
“It creates a high-risk environment for Aboriginal people when institutional racism is clearly present and explicit.”
Mr Murphy ordered now Deputy Commissioner Martin Dole to carry out a joint investigation into the racist TRG awards with the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption in February, but it is unclear where that investigation currently stands after Commissioner Michael Riches took sudden leave from the role last week, following allegations of domestic violence made by his wife and his non-disclosure of that accusation, which he said had “no substance”.
Police would not say if they are currently investigating Mr Riches who has been investigating the police in connection to the awards since February.
Would you lot like to apologise for the rampant criminal behaviour of Aboriginals which has become normalised ?.
What needs to happen immediately is an audit into where the Millions of dollars handed to you each year go.
Thank christ we voted NO.
In Parliament on 12 March 2024, when defending Potters racist social media posts, Chief Minister Lawler said that all but a very few Territorians have acted in a racist manner. She believes all but a very few of us are racist so why is so hard to say all but a very few police force officers have acted in a racists manner? Does Chief Minister Lawler believe that the ‘very few’ non-racist Territorians joined her police force and the rest of us are the problem?? Lawler and Potter are a disgrace and have no right to call all but a ‘very few’ of us racists. She defended Potter racists social media posts by blaming everyone else and saying its normal behavior and thereby minimizing its racist effects and damage. Lawler and Potter have no credibility on racism are are leading a government cover-up. Shame job.
APONT, is that another name for “The Bermuda Triangle of Federal Funding”?????
Youthful hijinx by a group of testosterone fueled young persons. But alway there to protect the public when required no matter what colour or race.
Gagey
No racism in the NT, nope, none at all.
No point asking for an apology from these dopes lets be honest. Any fool can apologise for something and not mean it. At least they’re all being open and honest about their racist views, racist friends and doing nothing about it.
The reason they’re being open and honest about it because they know that those opinions being public won’t change anything. They really don’t care who knows and what they think about it. Their friends in other high places already know and everybody else has no impact on their privileged well-paid lives.
The only way to affect this disgusting group of people is to continue to expose it to the world and then vote them out if you have the chance. Or stand for election yourself and use them as the reason. Whingeing (they don’t care) and appealing to morals (they don’t have any) is a waste of time and energy. Asking them to view non-white people as normal, decent human beings is like asking a rattlesnake to be more like an earthworm. Aint happening people!
When it was revealed that Murphy racially abused staff at a chinese restaurant, and didn’t deny it because he was too drunk to remember, he should have resigned or been sacked then. Just think about it. Then what have we found out since. He tells us anything that will fit his narrative. What next?
Google search: “Southwood judge racist comment
NTIndependent, NTNews and another online publication have all reported on it.
It’s not true, it never happened, because he denied it.
I wonder how many people Judge Southwood sentenced to prison over the years who denied it too.