Leanne Liddle on heading up NT Police Force efforts to combat racism, improve Indigenous relations
She is the Indigenous woman in charge of combating racism and improving the culture within the Northern Territory Police, but Leanne Liddle knows it will take far more than an apology to create lasting change. Ms Liddle who has been in the role for just over a month sat down with ABC reporter Thomas Morgan to outline her vision for reforming the force.
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00:00Leanne Little is not shying away from the challenge of confronting over 150 years of
00:08injustice towards Indigenous Territorians.
00:12I'm under no assumption or illusion that it's, I've got some magic fairy dust that's just
00:19going to be able to be thrown over the police force and everything will be corrected.
00:23The Arrinda woman is in charge of rooting out racism at the NT Police and says she wants
00:28to create change, following the Commissioner's apology at the Garma Festival last weekend.
00:34Look, I understand people who say they're just words, but you need to accept the past
00:39to move forward.
00:40We've got steps in place, we've got concepts in place that roll out and move forward with
00:46tangible outcomes from that apology.
00:50Ms Little wants Territorians to reframe how they see racism, pointing to a lack of Indigenous
00:56language operators at 000 call centres as an example of its systemic nature.
01:02People don't want to be racist, but sometimes the system allows them to be that way.
01:08A key solution both her and Commissioner Murphy have is boosting Indigenous representation
01:14to match the NT's population.
01:17For me it's not just words, it's not just ink on a paper at the end of the day, it's
01:23recruitment, it's looking at complaint systems in the police force, it's looking at systemic
01:27racism that sits in the police force where people just see it as business as usual.
01:35Ms Little is aware that Indigenous Territorians have heard this all before.
01:38I've seen over my 30 plus year career in the public service so many glossy, amazing documents
01:48that look fantastic but have failed to deliver on their outcome.
01:55Time will tell whether her efforts will have better results.