The Northern Territory's police commissioner has admitted he was made aware of a series of racist awards being handed out by the TRG, months before the evidence was made public at the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. WARNING: This story contains racist and offensive language and images, and the image of an Aboriginal person who has died.
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00:00 Do you have a racist force?
00:03 No we don't.
00:04 A succinct denial by the territory's top cop who says racism is not pervasive within his
00:10 ranks.
00:11 But in front of the coroner investigating a fatal shooting carried out by one of his
00:15 officers Commissioner Michael Murphy was forced to concede he knew six months before it was
00:21 made public that his most elite unit had spent years handing out racist joke awards and that
00:27 he did nothing about it.
00:29 Why didn't you report the awards when you were first told about them six months before
00:33 they became public in the inquest?
00:35 Look I've given evidence today Mel and I know you'll appreciate it but I'm not going to
00:38 make any further comment at this time.
00:41 Thank you.
00:42 Mr Murphy told the coroner "I didn't treat it with the seriousness I should have.
00:46 I was quite busy."
00:47 In February this year former Constable Zachary Rolfe alerted the coroner and the public to
00:52 the awards.
00:53 The Commissioner conceded this comment that followed the next day.
00:56 No I was not aware of the TRG, these awards they spoke of.
01:01 Was unintentionally misleading, telling the court the conversation he'd had six months
01:05 earlier was not in his mind.
01:08 He said he did not mean to downplay the existence of racism in his public comments, accepting
01:13 that members of the Aboriginal community have been complaining of incidents of racism for
01:18 many years and that his denials were effectively gaslighting members of the Aboriginal community.
01:24 The Commissioner said the police force has a lot of work to do and that he's committed
01:28 to effecting change.
01:30 His evidence today was the last the coroner will hear in her long-running inquest into
01:35 the death of Kumunjai Walker.
01:37 For now Mr Walker's community is waiting again to see if anything will come from the coroner's
01:42 findings when they're eventually handed down.
01:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]