THEY were some of the most confronting and heart-wrenching images seen by Australian television audiences.
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The images aired on ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday night of the abuse of young people in a Northern Territory detention centre have shocked and appalled people.
Even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was moved by the images, calling for a royal commission into the detention centre.
The graphic footage, which Facebook was asked to remove after they were shared, showed indigenous offenders being stripped naked, tear-gassed and held in solitary confinement for weeks at the centre in 2014 and 2015.
In one video, a 17-year-old was hooded, shackled to a "mechanical device" chair and left alone for two hours. In another, a guard is heard saying "I'll pulverise the ******" as a youth in isolation bangs at the windows.
While Australia has come a long way when it comes to the treatment of inmates and people in detention centres, this footage proves we still have a long way to to.
What was almost as shocking as the damning footage, was this behaviour was not only allowed to happen, but covered up by authorities.
In this case, ignorance is not bliss.
In response to the footage, many people around Australia have since written to the Northern Territory chief minister and the Minister for Children and Families calling for urgent action.
In his response to the Four Corners program, PM Turnbull said: “We're determined to examine the extent to which there has been a culture of abuse and indeed whether there has been a culture of cover up.
Mr Turnbull also questioned by the cases shown on the ABC program went unrevealed for so long.
That is a question many of us are also asking. How, in today’s modern society, when such actions are frowned upon – especially in Australia – have the perpetrators of the abuse been allowed to get away with such horrors?
The royal commission, which is likely to be led by a senior lawyer or retired judge, will have powers to compel witnesses and the production of evidence.
It will be jointly run by the federal and NT governments and the terms of reference will be drafted in the next few days. This royal commission needs to start its inquiries into these horrors sooner rather than later.