Federal Cabinet is due to meet in Canberra on Thursday to discuss the terms of reference for a Royal Commission into youth detention in the Top End.
It follows the ABC's Four Corners program airing footage of young men being tear-gassed, stripped naked and held in solitary confinement.
Despite apparent and clear evidence that it was a matter of record that systemic abuse was occurring in the Don Dale correction centre, Territories Chief Minister Adam Giles and federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion both insist they weren't aware of the extent of the abuse.
The blame game has begun and it appears it's nobody's fault.
Graphic footage of young Indigenous offenders being stripped naked, tear-gassed and held in solitary confinement for weeks at the Don Dale detention centre in 2014 and 2015 has sparked a royal commission and ignited national outrage.
In one video, a 17 year-old is hooded, shackled to a mechanical device chair and left alone for two hours.
But Indigenous Affairs Minister and Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion says he didn't think the issue warranted action at a federal level when it was brought to his attention last year.
He says he did not intervene because he had not seen any CCTV vision and the issue had not sparked his interest.
"I wish I'd known what I know today, or knew yesterday afternoon, some time ago, but the facts of the matter were I didn't know, I had never seen the vision, it hadn't come to my attention, hadn't piqued my interest sufficiently. I can recall back in October vaguely last year, there was some commentary in the media about this. I assumed that the Northern Territory Government were taking care of this matter and that I didn't take any further action in that."
Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles says he's not at fault either.
He says there's obviously a culture of cover up operation in the Northern Territory that's entrenched.
"That culture of cover-up doesn't necessarily go to every single officer in the corrections agency or in the prison system. 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 this culture of cover-up doesn't just go back to 2010, which the footage shows, but goes back way beyond then."
The Northern Territory's Corrections minister, John Elferink, has been stood aside from that portfolio which will now be handled by Mr Giles.
But Mr Elferink is staying on as Attorney-General and retains the children, families, justice, disability and mental health portfolios until the government enters caretaker mode ahead of the Territories election at the end of August, when he will retire from politics.
The Territory Government commissioned its own report into the situation last year.
The Northern Territory Children's Commissioners, Howard Bath and Colleen Gwynne, also held a separate inquiry.
Both reports were made public, reported by the media, and the Territory Government was given the reports, along with video footage.
Newly endorsed Northern Territory Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy has told the ABC Mr Giles ignored information on the abuse of children at the Don Dale facility that's been in the media since 2014.
"The fact that consistently you had legal organisations across the Northern Territory - from the Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency to John Lawrence, a barrister, to even the Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne last year - saying on national television there was a crisis in the juvenile justice system, it just means that the leadership of the NT has failed to listen to the very people who know what's going on out there."
Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek says there's no doubt the information about what's going on in the Northern territory's correction system is concerning and alarming.
But she's cautioned against apportioning blame, saying the situation is systemic and telling the ABC the children have been failed by politicians for a long time.
"How is it that we have gone so long with this happening and no one has taken action? I think that is a very important question for this Royal Commission. These children have been failed by the political class. I'm happy to take my share of the responsibility for that. I think it is important that the Commonwealth and the Territory government both examine the information that each level of government had and why action was not taken. But we need to look beyond that as well."
Ms Plibersek says she believes there's a case for the Royal Commission to examine all youth detention regimes across the nation, rather than just in the Northern Territory.
Her call is being echoed by human rights and Indigenous groups.
Cabinet will make that decision in Canberra this week.
