Part One – Michael Murphy and the battle against racism in the NT Police
This is Part One of a two part article examining recent events involving the NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy, the NT ICAC, the NT government and the powerful police union the NT Police Association.
Part Two will follow in due course.
Then the officer said
You better get a lawyer, son
You better get a real good one
You better get a lawyer, son
You better get a real good one
Better get a lawyer. The Cruel Sea, 1994
Commissioner Michael Murphy is a 28-year veteran of the NT Police Force and has spent more than half his life serving the NT. He graduated from the NT Police Academy in 1997 after following his sister to the Top End from his home on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Murphy was following a family tradition – his sister and father both served as police officers.
At the time of his appointment as the Commissioner of the NT Police Force in August 2023, the force was in such a parlous state that Nathan Finn, president of the powerful Northern Territory Police Association (NTPA) said it “can’t get much lower than where we got to.” Finn said that Murphy was a “genuine guy with the interest of our members at heart.”
Whether there’s been much improvement in the NT police during Murphy’s 20 months in the top job is open to debate, but last Saturday night NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro made a late-night announcement that Murphy’s continued service was “untenable.”
Running the NT Police Force has always been a tough gig and Murphy’s tenure as Commissioner was troubled from the start.
Zachary Rolfe and the killing of Kumanjayi Walker
In February 2024 former NT police officer Zachary Rolfe alleged that Murphy had racially abused staff at an Alice Springs Chinese restaurant many years earlier.
A subsequent investigation by the NT Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) was inconclusive and determined that it wasn’t in the public interest to further investigate events about which the facts were uncertain and that had allegedly occurred 21 years earlier – if at all.
Rolfe’s allegations against Murphy were made in the course of evidence to the inquest by NT Coroner Elizabeth Armitage into the killing by Rolfe of Kumanjayi Walker at Yuendumu in November 2019. Rolfe was subsequently charged with Walker’s murder and found not guilty by a jury at his trial.
Racism & the NT police force
One of the key questions Coroner Armitage has raised in her inquest that commenced in 2022 and is yet to be finalised – is whether, and if so to what extent – the NT Police Force is infected with systemic racism.
In April 2024 a former NT Police Aboriginal Community Police Officer (ACPO) told the NT News that “A lot of constables openly mock Aboriginal people, the way they talk, very racist comments of ‘coons,’ ‘half-castes,’ ‘halfies’ … every ACPO would have a story of racism.”
In May 2024 further evidence of the breadth and depth of racism in the force emerged when claims surfaced about the Noogadah Awards – aka ‘Coon Of The Year’ Awards – given to members of the NT’s elite Territory Response Group (TRG).
While ICAC would later confirm that it found no evidence of racism in the TRG after 2016, the NT News noted in an editorial that ICAC had “exposed a broader picture of the apparent normalisation of blatantly and explicit racist sentiments deep within the force.”
Murphy makes his mark
In mid-May 2024 the NT News reported on Murphy’s efforts to shape the leadership structure of the force to match his vision. Murphy told the News that appointing his colleague and old friend Martin Dole as deputy Commissioner was key to strengthening the force’s leadership, “We do need to renew and refresh our police executive and rebuild our trust with our workforce.”
Garma, the apology and all-hell-breaks-loose
Key elements to Murphy’s response to the continuing racism controversies and his personal vision of the force’s structure included the July 2024 appointment of Arrernte woman and former South Australian police officer Leanne Liddle as director of the Community Resilience and Engagement Command.
In terms that would have alarmed the NTPA, Murphy told The Guardian that Liddle was expected to “challenge the thinking and current culture” of the force. Liddle told The Guardian of her proposals for “significant cultural reform” and that there was an “urgent need to address racism in all its forms.”
In early August 2024 Murphy made the boldest move of his brief time as commissioner, appearing at the annual Garma Festival to deliver an apology directed to all Aboriginal Territorians affected by the 150 year history of policing in the NT.
Murphy’s speech, coming as it did 3 weeks before the 2024 NT general election, was widely criticised as partisan and political.
Murphy’s speech committed the force to a range of bold – and for many unrealistic – actions, including the elimination of racism and discrimination in the force and setting a 30% employment target for Aboriginal people across all ranks.
Murphy was assailed from all sides, with the NTPA issuing a “sharp rebuke” to his apology and related proposals and claiming offence on behalf of its members for lack of prior consultation about his commitments. Left-leaning commentators predictably claimed Murphy’s proposals didn’t go anywhere near far enough.
Immediately after his Garma speech Murphy resigned his membership of the NTPA, citing as cause his disappointment at the NTPA’s response to his apology.
Politics
The NTPA’s 2024 annual conference was held immediately before the NT general election on 24 August. In a gesture seen as a direct snub to Murphy, NTPA President Finn issued an apology of his own – not to Aboriginal Territorians – but to his members who he said had fallen prey to “government mismanagement.”
The next day the NT News editorial described the relationship between Murphy, the NTPA and the Labor government as “a tinder-box full of napalm.”
The Labor government was unceremoniously turfed from office at the election and the CLP, led by Lia Finocchiaro, won by a landslide. Finocchiaro kept her Police portfolio and on the Sunday following the election held an hour-long meeting with Murphy. The next day she had a lengthy meeting with the NTPA’s Finn.
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