Spit hoods return in the Territory

By AMANDA PARKINSON

Spit hoods will again be used to restrain children in the Northern Territory, the police commissioner has confirmed.

The controversial devices were banned in NT youth detention centres following a landmark royal commission in 2016 and were subsequently eliminated in South Australia and NSW in all custodial settings.

However, while they were prohibited in NT youth detention centres, they were only operationally banned by the former Labor government for police.

Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said on Monday the ban on officers using the restraints had ended.

“We will be introducing spit (hoods) this week, back into use in the Northern Territory – just in our watch house facilities,” he said.

“In the last three months alone, 68 police have been assaulted, 20 counts of spitting, which is absolutely abhorrent, and 40, usually punching or kicking,” he said.

The Country Liberal Party’s suite of crime-based repeals would send a clear message to the public that assaulting frontline workers and police wasn’t acceptable, Mr Murphy said.

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro campaigned hard on law and order before being elected to the top job in August.

She promised to reinstate the use of spit hoods when parliament sat for the first time this week, as well as lower the criminal age of responsibility.

“No other jurisdiction in this country has taken the steps that the previous Labor government did by abandoning young people under the age of 12 and allowing them unfettered to commit crimes against innocent Territorians,” she said.

“Those laws do not meet communities expectations, and they do not allow the government to intervene early in these young people’s lives when they’re committing such serious offences.”

AAP has confirmed the Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley was aware the youth justice act would be amended in parliament in the next two weeks to reinstate the use of spit hoods in youth detention facilities.

Last year, the United Nations committee against torture recommended that Australia “take all necessary measures to end the use of spit hoods in all circumstances, across all jurisdictions”.

Furthermore, the NT police watchdog released a review of 30 incidents involving the use of spit hoods on children from 2020 to 2021 and found police had often improperly used the “extraordinary restraints” and failed to adequately de-escalate situations.

NT Ombudsman Peter Shoyer recommended the devices not be used in any settings.

Queensland and the Australian Federal Police also banned the use of spit hoods in their jurisdictions, a move welcomed by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay commended the changes in 2023, saying “the use of spit hoods poses significant risks of injury and death, and that their use is contrary to human rights”.

“Evidence clearly indicates that the key risk a spit hood is designed to prevent – the transmission of communicable diseases – is very low, making their use a disproportionate response.”

AAP