Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles has sacked the minister in charge of the youth detention system that has triggered a royal commission and taken over the portfolio.
Mr Giles alleged a "culture of cover up" in the corrections system that kept the shocking footage aired by ABC's Four Corners from police and said the royal commission, to be jointly conducted by the NT and federal governments, should take a look at the entire corrections and child protection system.
"In my conversation with [federal Attorney-General] George Brandis, I said I want the royal commission not just to look at the corrections system in the Northern Territory, I also want it to look at child protection," he said on Tuesday.
John Elferink, formerly the corrections minister, is staying on as Attorney-General and retaining the children, families, justice, disability and mental health portfolios until the government enters caretaker mode ahead of the NT election at the end of August, when he will retire from politics.
Mr Giles has also announced the NT government will construct an alternative farm detention facility for youths.
The royal commission, whose terms of reference and commissioner are yet to be decided, will be jointly conducted by the federal and NT governments. It was announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday morning.
Mr Turnbull has said a "distinguished Australian" to lead the inquiry will be announced alongside the terms of reference. He expects a directions hearing in August and evidence to be heard from September to November, "with the aim of producing a report setting out all of the facts early next year".
Mr Giles described the Four Corners footage, which showed youths being isolated, strapped to mechanical chairs and tear-gassed in 2014, as "horror".
"I would say that seeing some of that footage last night and understanding many of the historical elements within our corrections system, that I think over time there has most certainly been a culture of cover up within the corrections system," he said.
In a press conference, Mr Giles was persistently questioned over his government's prior knowledge of incidents and practices at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin. Some evidence of abuse was publicly available before the broadcast on Monday night.
The Chief Minister said the majority of the footage was new to police and everything the government had previously seen had been appropriately referred.
"I have never seen that vision that was on television last night. I mean, there is vision there dating back before we were even in government," Mr Giles said.
"In regards to previous reports by current and previous children's commissioners about the culture of cover up, yes, we've gone and made changes in that regard and I think that where we are now is the system is much better than what it was in 2014, 2012 and 2010."
"What we're changing is a culture of an organisation within the youth detention system and I think we've come a long way in that time," he said, when asked about how much responsibility his government bears for the issues.
"There are many good people who work in the prison system, but to think that this footage has not only been withheld from the former corrections minister and myself and many officials in government, to me, says that this culture of cover-up doesn't just go back to 2010, in which the footage shows, but goes back way beyond then."
The Prime Minister said the royal commission "may well throw up evidence about the extent the NT government was aware of these events or not".
Mr Giles said the royal commission would look into the use of the restraint chair for youths and defended their use for preventing self-harm in a "challenging environment".
According to NT Corrections Commissioner Mark Payne, only two of the staff members identified in the footage are still employed in the "youth justice sphere".
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda has called for the Prime Minister to "sack" the NT government over its management of youth detention.
"Let's have another intervention and put an administrator in the Northern Territory cos it looks to me like they're incapable of managing anything up there," Mr Gooda said.
