The man at the centre of the royal commission into the Northern Territory’s youth justice system has angrily decreed it a “waste of money”.
Dylan Voller made the comments on Thursday after NT police announced no charges will be laid over the matters raised in the inquiry.
“I’m disappointed and let down by the system,” the 20-year-old told reporters in Canberra at a Grandmothers Against Removals rally.
“It was a crime. That’s exactly what it is. If someone did that in a public space then they’d be charged, but because it’s in a government spot they don’t want to look bad. That’s why they hide it.”
'Waste of money'
The abuse suffered by Mr Voller and five other teenage boys at the Don Dale Detention Centre in 2014 thrust the treatment of detainees in the Top End into the national spotlight.
It eventually culminated in a royal commission into the protection and detention of children in NT, which cost approximately $70 million.
“It was definitely a waste of money,” Mr Voller said.
“I don’t think enough has been done, you’re still seeing the same things being done in juvenile detention centres.”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched the investigation after ABC’s Four Corners program aired shocking images of the teenagers being tear-gassed, spit-hooded, and stripped naked at the Darwin facility.
Dylan Voller speaking in Canberra. Source: SBS
A 'broken system'
In its findings earlier this year, the commission slammed the NT justice system as broken. It also revealed "severe, prison-like and unhygienic conditions" across a number of facilities in the Top End.
"A system which was meant to make the community safer, in fact, made it more dangerous," the report said.
The inquiry found officers restrained children, using force including in restraint chairs, and used isolation cells inappropriately and punitively.
"The failures we have identified have cost children and families greatly, they have not made communities safer and they are shocking," Commissioner Mick Gooda said when the report was released.
No charges
Former NT Corrections Minister John Elferink said the fact no criminal charges had been laid meant Mr Turnbull had been misled in commissioning the investigation.
"We have acted, and always acted when in government, with absolute probity, something Four Corners had explained to them at length, something they chose not to run with and as a consequence they put out a story saying that we tortured children," Mr Elferink told NT News.
"All of those things are indictable offences, none of that was found to be true."
The Territory government has since announced it will spend $229 million to implement more than 200 recommendations. But Mr Voller said more needs to be done.
“I’m not prepared to stop until all of us in Don Dale get justice. And other detention centres as well, not just Don Dale,” he said.
