Updated October 21, 2016 19:50:08

Photo: Nigel Scullion said he was "shocked" by the Four Corners report into Don Dale. (ABC News: Matthew Roberts)

Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion has faced a scathing interrogation in Senate Estimates over conflicting statements he has made about his knowledge of the abuse of children in the NT prison system.

Labor systematically attacked a series of inconsistencies in his public statements in the wake of the Four Corners report into abuse at the Don Dale detention centre and eventually questioned his fitness to continue as Minister.

Senator Scullion attempted to placate his questioners with the promise of new funding for all states and territories to provide a mandatory legal helpline for Indigenous prisoners.

That only served to further anger Labor Senator Patrick Dodson, who said the move was 25 years overdue and a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody at the time Senator Dodson was one of the commissioners.

Labor unpicks inconsistencies

Senator Scullion told today's estimates hearing he was shocked by the Four Corners story and that it revealed serious failures, including a "culture of brutality".

He maintained the broadcast which showed children being teargassed and one teenager being hooded and restrained was much worse than what was previously on the public record.

"I had never received any briefings at all that matched any of the graphic circumstances that we saw in the Four Corners report," he said.

But Labor's Jenny McCallister used the estimates hearing to unpick inconsistencies in his public statements on the issue, referring to a previous report to Government that detailed the teargassing incident that the minister agreed he had been handed.

Senator McCallister also pointed to a media report detailing a separate story, that Senator Scullion told the hearing he did recall broadly.

"The ABC report quoted that some staff made young people fight, with the winner getting extra soft drink and chocolate," Senator McCallister said.

"There was [bird] poo sitting on the ground one time and a young fella got dared to eat its shit and they videoed it ... and they gave him a coke and a chocolate."

'A brief is significantly different to a briefing'

The day after the Four Corners story aired, Senator Scullion was asked by reporters about what he knew.

He responded at the time that he did not know about the Northern Territory enquiries.

A freedom of information request has since revealed numerous reports to Senator Scullion preparing him for Question Time.

Today he sought to clarify what he meant.

"When I said publicly I have not received a brief on the matter, I was not saying I haven't received a briefing," he said.

"A brief is significantly different to a briefing... They are not the same thing."

Senator Scullion was also pressed about whether he had given the wrong information in a subsequent interview with the ABC's Drive program, when he was again asked about what he knew.

He now acknowledges that information he gave them may not have been completely accurate, but added that he didn't think that detail was what really mattered.

Dodson calls on Scullion to exercise leadership

Senator Scullion told the hearing his government was acting in the wake of the Four Corners report and more generally to deal with the problems facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people in prison.

He announced the Federal Government was offering funding for all states and territories to provide a mandatory helpline for Aboriginal people who are taken into police custody.

A compulsory Custody Notification Service was a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, a quarter of a century ago.

Labor Senator Patrick Dodson was a commissioner on that royal commission and today he was scathing about the announcement.

"[This is] an appalling demonstration of ignorance about the criminal justice system and its interface with Indigenous peoples," Senator Dodson said.

Senator Dodson has called on the Minister to exercise leadership or take stock of his ministerial position.

Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, government-and-politics, federal-government, royal-commissions, australia, nt

First posted October 21, 2016 19:31:26