Demonstrations are not a feature of political culture in the Northern Territory. Nearly a year ago, citizens did take to the streets in Darwin and here, 1,500km to the south in Alice Springs. Yet submissions to the territory's coroner suggest the boy should not have been locked up in the first place. This deceased seems to have entered a system that failed him in every respect. The monthly court day at Groote Eyelandt is overwhelming for all parties.
Lawyers take instructions from a long procession of clients under the the court verandah.
Jon Tippett has known first-hand the bedlam of court day in NT communities. The opportunity for obtaining instructions from peoples whose second, sometimes third, sometimes fourth language is English are appalling. And the opportunity therefore to analyse any particular individual case and give it the due weight it deserves in terms of legal decision making is simply non-existent. The fact is that the courts in bush areas operate like sausage machines. It was just that sort of day in January last year when lawyer Selwyn Hausman represented the dead boy on charges of illegal entry and stealing.