The Northern Territory’s August election will decide whether spit hoods are reintroduced to the territory’s youth detention centres. The NT Police Association says front line officers are regularly assaulted, spat on and bitten. Oppositional Leader Lia Finocchiaro has indicated strong support to reverse the ban on spit hoods if her party wins government in August.
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TVTranscript
00:00 A controversial restraint banned in NT youth prisons that could come back into use if the
00:07 country Liberal Party wins the next election.
00:11 If you don't want to have PPE like a spit hood put on you, then don't spit on our frontline
00:16 workers. When you're dealing with offenders who are willing to bite their tongue, bite
00:21 their cheek and spit blood and phlegm in the face of a frontline worker, that we have to
00:26 make sure that those people are safe.
00:28 The AFP ended its use of spit hoods last year after a review found they are ineffective
00:35 in protecting against transmissible diseases. But the Police Association argues they're
00:41 a necessary option.
00:42 Over the last couple of weeks we've seen a number of our members assaulted. In the watch
00:46 house environment we've had two members bitten.
00:48 In a statement, the NT Children's Commissioner Shalina Musk said while all frontline workers
00:54 deserve to be safe at work, there was no evidence to suggest they increase safety. She says
01:00 the Northern Territory must not go backwards and step away from the evidence-based approach
01:06 to spit hoods that has been adopted in recent times.
01:09 Since Latoya's brother died in custody in 2016, restrained in a spit hood in South Australia,
01:16 she's been pushing for legislated bans.
01:19 This news is incredibly alarming. It feels completely like we are stepping backwards
01:25 into archaic days.
01:28 While not committing to prohibiting spit hoods in law, the Minister for Territory Families
01:32 says they don't need to be brought back.
01:35 We have used PPEs in the past. We have not needed those spit hoods since we've ruled
01:38 those out.
01:39 Both sides of politics well aware crime is on voters' minds, heading towards the election.
01:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]