Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion. I refer to the minister's answer in question time on 1 September 2016. When asked about his failure to act on earlier reports of abuse at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, the minister claimed there was a 'huge gap' between what was contained in earlier reports and what was shown on Four Corners. Does the minister stand by this statement?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed. I was referring also to media reports at the time, and I think is pretty self-evident that there was a vast difference between what was in the media reports that everybody had access to and what we saw on Four Corners on the night of the airing. I think the principal difference was that, for the first time in any reports in the media up to that point, there was no CCTV footage whatsoever.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, a supplementary question.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I refer to the Children's Commissioner's report, which was made public, published in September 2015, that cited precisely the same footage shown on the Four Corners report—precisely the same footage—in which a youth justice officer says, and I quote partially: 'No, let the'—expletive—'come through because when he comes through he will be off balance, I'll pulverise, I'll pulverise the little'—expletive. Does the minister still stand by his statement that there is a 'huge gap'?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, I think there is a significant gap, as every Australian will agree, between seeing the footage, and having the footage cited and one part of the footage quoted in a report.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, a final supplementary question.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I again refer to the Children's Commissioner's report that cited precisely the same footage shown on the Four Corners report, in which a youth justice officer says, and I quote: 'Go grab the'—expletive—'gas and'—expletive—'gas them through'—expletive—get Jimmy to gas them through here.' Given that there is demonstrably no 'huge gap' between the Four Corners report and the Children's Commissioner's report, will the minister now accept he misled the Senate and correct the record?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not accept I misled the Senate, and I will say again: there is a vast difference between citing a report in writing and making a selective quote out of that, and the vision that we all saw. The vision was deeply disturbing, and to say that there is an equality between a cited paragraph within that report and seeing the CCTV is absolutely misleading.