The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls is calling for an urgent intervention into the Northern Territory Government following explosive comments made by Beth Wild, President of the Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory, in a recent interview with ABC Darwin.
Beth Wild described the Northern Territory courts as being in “disaster” and “chaos,” with up to 50 people being processed through Darwin courts daily — a direct consequence of recent bail law changes and intensified policing. ‘We are hearing that people are being held in custody without their families knowing where they are. Many are reportedly spending up to a week in watch houses — effectively disappeared into a system that refuses to account for them,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘This is not dysfunction. This is not a bureaucratic oversight. This is a deliberate collapse of the legal system to fast-track the mass criminalisation and incarceration of Aboriginal people,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘The Finocchiaro Government knows exactly what it is doing. They are disappearing Aboriginal people. They are caging them in degrading conditions. They do not care whether families are notified. They do not care what happens once people are out of sight,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘This is the brutal logic of a racist law and order agenda — and the Northern Territory is being treated as a colonial frontier where the lives and rights of Aboriginal people are treated as disposable,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘We are already seeing repeated breaches of human and legal rights. We are already seeing people disappear into legal black holes with no accountability. If nothing changes, we will see deaths in custody. We will see more extreme harms inflicted on people who are already targeted, criminalised, and silenced,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘The system is not broken, it is not failing— it is working exactly as intended. It is collapsing into chaos by design,’ said Tabitha Lean.
The National Network demand an immediate intervention into the Finocchiaro Government’s policies and practices. We demand oversight. We demand accountability. We demand an end to the criminalisation and disappearance of Aboriginal people.
The lives of Aboriginal women, children, and communities are on the line. There is no time to wait.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226.
