NT called out on hoods
INTERNATIONAL and Australian agencies have called on the Northern Territory government to follow through with banning spit hoods on children.
The Human Rights Law Centre has said Chief Minister Michael Gunner assured the nation spit hoods and restraint chairs would be banned.
“The images of a child being hooded and strapped to a chair were an international shame.
The royal commission recommended banning the use of spit hoods and restraints,” legal director Nick Espie said.
“The fact the spit hoods and restraints have continued to be used … is … another example of half-measures and half-efforts that are followed up by punitive reforms.”
Mr Espie said the NT government must end this “cruel abuse of children”.
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service executive officer Jamie McConnachie said the news this week was appalling.
“To learn spit hoods are still being used in the NT is absolutely appalling. The fact they are used on 12-year-old children makes me sick to my stomach,” Mr McConnachie said.
“The commission’s recommendations were crystal clear – the use of spit hoods and restraint chairs must be prohibited. Time and time again, lifesaving recommendations are ignored, and our people continue to pay the price.”
In the joint statement by ACOSS, Change the Record, NATSILS, Save the Children and the Human Rights Law Centre, national justice and child welfare groups called on Mr Gunner to uphold his election promises.
“The incoming Northern Territory Labor government promised the use of spit hoods and restraint chairs on children would be banned. When the royal commission recommended spit hoods and restraint chairs be banned in 2017, the NT government supported the recommendations in full,” the statement read.
The statement has also now been backed by international human rights organisation Amnesty International.
Amnesty International Australia Indigenous rights campaigner Maggie Munn said the organisation backed health, legal and social services calls for a complete ban on spit hoods and restraint chairs.
“The data released shows a 12-year-old child was restrained using a spit hood. It’s heartbreaking to think that the lives of young children are valued so little that we allow designated tools of torture to be used against them,” Ms Munn said.
“People have the right to workplace safety, but Amnesty International has serious questions about the appropriateness of this kind of response.”
Ms Munn said the royal commission included extensive recommendations regard
ing the safety of officers none of which included spit hoods.
“So we encourage Territory police and the government to review the report again for alternatives, such as protective personal equipment,” she said.