Safety & Spit hoods: Building an Informed Opinion & Substantive Equality in Service Delivery
Safety in any service delivery must be non-discriminatory and non-binary to whom it applies. The consequences for breach of safety impacts all involved: service providers, intermediaries and the consumers. In the case of safety and use of spit hoods, NT Anti-Discrimination Commission supports the position of the Northern Territory Children’s Commissioner, Commissioner Shahleena Musk:
“all frontline workers deserve to be safe at work, there is no evidence to suggest that spit hoods increase safety.”
There is a need for officers to be protected but officer safety should be addressed by alternative mitigation strategies.
Following reforms to the Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Act 1992 which were introduced on 2 January 2024, there is a legal duty to take positive action to accommodate a special need in relation to protected attributes such as race, age and disability to the greatest extent possible. De-escalation, training and alternative mitigation strategies are proactive measures to accommodate special needs, especially of vulnerable people. Anything less than this is not in the spirit of positive duty obligations.
Most jurisdictions in Australia have banned the use of spit hoods and South Australia have criminalised use of it. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) conducted a review into the use of spit hoods in early 2023 and found that they are not sufficient to prevent transmissible diseases and therefore the risk of using them outweighed the benefits of their use.
The AFP found that spit hoods cause an elevated risk of serious harm to “vulnerable cohorts including children and young people, those with co-morbidities or trauma backgrounds, mental illness and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
The NT must advance the national and global approach against the use of spit hoods. We must lead by example as positive duty holders in achieving substantive equality for all, albeit challenging circumstances in service delivery, especially for the vulnerable.
References:
1. Lorraine Finlay (Human Rights Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission), Opening Statement to the UN Committee Against Torture (Geneva, 14 November 2022)
2. Ombudsman NT, Investigation Report, Extraordinary Restraint: Spit Hood & Emergency Restraint Chair Use on Children in Police Custody, Recommendation 3 and 4
3. Review of the Use of Spit Hoods by the AFP, April 2023
4. Royal Commission and Board of Inquiry into the protection of children in the Northern Territory, Findings and Recommendations, (17 November 2017)
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