What will the NT Royal Commission achieve?

Justice Barr imposed a head sentence of three years and eight months.  Voller was to serve 20 months without parole, backdated to his remand.

A federal royal commission will now examine in detail the Northern Territory's treatment of juvenile detainees: a decision made swiftly by the Prime Minister, following the Four Corners programme.  While I agree that an inquiry of some sort is probably now merited, Royal Commissions tend to be slow and provide a bonanza for lawyers.

It is currently fashionable to blame the corrections system for high rates of Indigenous imprisonment  and for destroying the childhood of those imprisoned.  I take a different viewpoint.

While there are excesses with the corrections system both in the Territory and elsewhere, the main causality dates back earlier in the lives of offenders.  Instead of merely wallowing in victimhood, the Indigenous community itself needs to take responsibility for the underlying problem, which is chronic levels of poor parenting, in part linked to substance abuse and family breakdown.  While we know that historic factors are pertinent and explain some of the difficulties, communities in the Territory and elsewhere need to make drastic changes themselves. 

In the past Indigenous communities were very reluctant to face up to issues of sky-high levels of child sexual abuse and domestic violence, particularly in remote regions.  I am not holding my breath for any quick fix relating to the juvenile justice and detention system either.  Simply putting chronic young offenders back on the street is not a solution.