A senior Indigenous public servant in the Northern Territory government has told an inquest that she had seen “so many examples of systemic racism in the NT police force” that negotiating a justice agreement for the territory was “one of the most depressing and saddest experiences” of her life.
Leanne Liddle, an Arrernte woman and director of the Aboriginal justice unit in the NT attorney general’s department, developed the Aboriginal justice agreement (AJA) after extensive consultation in Aboriginal communities.
She spoke about this on Monday as she gave evidence at the inquest into the police shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker.
“I recall … a senior sergeant of a remote police station who, in front of his junior colleague, when I asked him what he believed was the answer to reducing incarceration of Aboriginal people, he said, ‘The only hope you mob have is to stop breeding for the next 10 to 15 years’,” Liddle told the inquest.
“I didn’t want this person working in an Aboriginal community again, but to my surprise this officer was transferred to another Aboriginal community with a promotion.”
Walker, 19, was shot dead by Constable Zachary Rolfe during a botched arrest in the remote NT community of Yuendumu in 2019. Rolfe was cleared of all criminal charges in relation to the shooting.
Over a 30-year career, Liddle was a police officer, a lawyer, a senior public servant and in 2022 was named NT Australian of the Year.
Liddle said it was an “understatement” to describe as “devastating” the consultations to develop the justice agreement, aimed at reducing incarceration rates and improving life outcomes for Aboriginal people in the NT.
“I was devastated to see the fear and despair and hopelessness in the faces and voices of Aboriginal people, young, old, men, women and children in so many communities and towns,” Liddle said in a statement tendered to the court.
People said they thought that the treatment they received by police would not happen if they were non-Aboriginal, she said.
“People told us that they felt they were made to feel like they were subhuman. That they were treated differently because of their skin colour,” she said.
Liddle said the focus on “training ‘bad eggs’ or ‘rotten apples’ to not be racist” or to be culturally aware or competent is “futile” and those efforts have failed to create any positive shift in police culture.
“What we need is systemic change,” she said. “Addressing systemic racism will allow Aboriginal people to engage with police and government services. They would then have a voice, which would empower them to be heard and to work with government and police to build, retain or restore a safe community.
“Addressing systemic racism would have ensured that police were sensitive to community expectations and concerns so that police would not have worn exposed firearms in Yuendemu.”
Last week, the inquest heard a sergeant had described Walker as a “shit cunt” in a text message in which he also told a colleague how to “answer his critics” in relation to the shooting, but denied it was an “angry racist message designed to protect a boy in blue”.
Sgt Ian Nankivell, who sent the message, was granted a certificate by coroner Elisabeth Armitage allowing him to give evidence that may “tend to criminate” him. He said he sent the message to an officer who he thought was involved in the shooting the day after it occurred.
The message was sent to Constable Mitchell Hansen, who had not been in Yuendumu but was a member of the immediate response team that had been involved in the shooting. Hansen then forwarded the message to Rolfe, texting: “Ian Nankivell sent me this to send to you. He was involved in shooting someone in vicpol so he said to send this through.”
Rolfe was scheduled to appear before the coroner this week but has been pursuing legal action to avoid giving evidence at the inquest and wrote an open letter before leaving the country in late February.
In the 2,500-word statement published on Facebook, Rolfe said he was a “good cop” who “loved the job”, but that he had been “painted” as racist and violent.
Acting for the NT police, Ian Freckelton earlier told the inquest the force was “extremely concerned” about Rolfe’s conduct.
“He is persisting in a campaign, it would appear, to try to destabilise the Northern Territory police force [and] imputes a variety of slurs against the executive, including that they are ‘narcissists’, ‘liars’, ‘cowards’ and similar,” Freckelton said in late February.
Freckelton said Rolfe’s lawyers had been served with a notice to give a response in relation to his conduct within seven days, and that depending on that response, further action would occur “swiftly”. The deadline for that response was Sunday.
NT police would not comment on whether the deadline was met.
