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ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

Zachary Rolfe, the former police officer who shot and killed an Indigenous teenager, Kumanjayi Walker, has been back in the witness box.

Rolfe was acquitted of Walker’s murder in 2022, but now he’s given new evidence in a coronial inquest into the death.

So, what do newly revealed text messages and evidence tell us about the culture inside the
NT police? And where do the problems in that policing system lie?

Today, contributor to The Saturday Paper, Anna Krien, on who Zachary Rolfe is and why his evidence could spark change in the Territory.

It’s Wednesday, March 13.

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ANGE:

Anna, you're pretty familiar with the case of Zachary Rolfe. He's a former police officer from the Northern Territory who shot an indigenous man, Kumanjayi Walker, and was tried and acquitted of his murder. To begin with, can you tell me about what we know about Zachary Rolfe?

ANNA:

Yeah. So, I mean that was the big question after news of the shooting came out into the media was who is Zach Rolfe? So at the time that he shot Kumanjayi Walker, that was back in 2019, he was 28 years old. He'd been a police officer in the Northern Territory and before that he'd been in the Army for five years, he'd served in Afghanistan. Zachary Rolfe grew up in Canberra, in the leafy suburbs of the old Canberra, in a heritage listed villa, and went to a private boy's school. His parents are well-known philanthropists and quite influential in Canberra.

When Zachary Rolfe became a policeman in the Northern Territory, he went to Alice Springs, which was the busiest police station in Australia. He was very keen to get into the TRG, which is the Tactical Response Group, which is an elite sort of paramilitary police squad that basically gets sort of dropped into high risk scenarios. They're often wearing camouflage gear and carrying AR15 rifles and very militaresque policing. At Alice Springs he joined the IRT, which is the Immediate Response Task Group, and Zach Rolfe was a very enthusiastic member of the IRT. Zachary Rolfe had this fatal encounter with Kumanjayi Walker and Yuendumu.

Audio Excerpt - Sky News:

“Police say they responded to a critical incident at the community of Yuendumu, that's about 300km north west of Alice Springs.”

Audio Excerpt - ABC News Reporter 1:

“It was here in Yuendumu where an attempt to arrest Kumanjayi Walker in November 2019 for breaching a court order and assaulting police ended in his death.”

Audio Excerpt - ABC News Reporter 2:

“Constable Zachary Rolfe had barely been in the job three years when he was stabbed in the shoulder with a pair of scissors as he tried to take Mr. Walker into custody. He responded by firing his gun three times.”

Audio Excerpt - ABC News Reporter 3:

“The community gathered outside the police station. No one was told what had happened or if at that stage whether Kumajayi Walker was still alive.”

ANNA:

The following day it had exploded in the media basically, as a Black Lives Matter situation, as what happened? How could this 19 year old have been shot dead three times when he was in community?

Audio Excerpt - Black Lives Matter protest:

I want to introduce Kumanjayi Walker’s mum.

ANNA:

This wasn't an arrest that had gone to plan, and a lot of people were up in arms as to what happened. Interestingly we now know that, for Zachary Rolfe, he might have actually seen this as a really important moment as to his applications to get into the tactical response group. And there's a text message that came through on his phone the following day from a very good friend of his, an old Army mate. And the text message says:

Audio Excerpt - Army Friend Voice Actor:

“Let's see those pussies in the TRG say no now.”

ANNA:

And Rolfe responds:

Audio Excerpt - Zachary Rolfe Voice Actor:

“Oath.”

ANNA:

So, there's this massive divide in how the event was viewed. Through the lens of Rolfe and his mates, his colleagues, and then the lens through which basically a large proportion of society saw it as a Black Lives Matter moment. It turned out not long after those text messages that the last thing that was going to be offered to Rolfe was a place on the TRG. Instead he got charged with murder, which was a momentous charge across Australia.

ANGE:

And Anna, can you explain what happened after that moment, and where the case is all up to now?

ANNA:

The criminal trial lasted about six weeks in Darwin. It was quite an intense trial, very high profile. By the end of it, after seven hours, the jury acquitted him. He was found not guilty. So the not guilty verdict was handed down two years ago in 2022.

A few months later, the details of Walker's death were being examined again by the coroner and the coronial inquest into Kumanjayi Walker’s death. When the inquest began in September 2022, it had been originally given the timeline of four months. It is ongoing to this day. So, 4 to 5 years after Walker died at the Yuendumu police station, Rolfe was finally compelled to give evidence at the inquest in Alice Springs in Arrernte country.

ANGE:

Right, and what's the coroner looking at specifically? And I guess, how will this process differ from what we already know about the circumstances of Kumanjayi Walker’s death in 2019? And what evidence did Zachary Rolfe give?

ANNA:

So a coronial inquest broadly seeks to understand why a death happened. It's inquisitorial. They're looking at what happened, not who might be responsible. So it's not a civil or criminal process in that sense. It obviously differs to the trial, because of the evidence that was suppressed during the trial is now allowed to be examined in an inquest. And it also differs in the extent that the coroner, Elizabeth Armitage, has extended the scope of this particular inquest to examine allegations of systemic racism throughout the territory, particularly within the Northern Territory police. So, as part of this process, there's dozens of witnesses. In this particular inquest there's been 80 witnesses, which is massive, including Zachary Rolfe, who was back in the witness box. He gave five days of evidence at the end of February.

There was a slightly amusing observation from the NT news reporter who said, for a man who didn't want to be there he was remarkably forthcoming, and he was. So there's a myriad of lawyers at this inquest. He was questioned about a number of use of force incidents, which were reviewed by the Ethical Standards Command's post at the police force. He was questioned about text messages where he referred to Alice Springs as kind of been like the Wild West and fuck all the rules, really, that kind of thing. Text message exchange, where he and another colleague discussed the fact that he was known for towelling up locals. In various text messages, Rolfe detailed jobs to friends, such as the pursuit of an alleged Ice dealer. In one text, he said,

Audio Excerpt - Zachary Rolfe Voice Actor:

“We were driving the wrong side of the road through red lights at like 130 kilometres an hour. Haha, was sick, and he tried to run and bashed him.”

ANNA:

In another exchange Rolfe illegally shared footage from his and his partner's body worn vision of an arrest.

Audio Excerpt - Zachary Rolfe Voice Actor:

“The main chase body worn is mine. Haha, treated him to the old illegal shoulder charge. Because I wear body armour, I'm not as rapid as the locals initially, but they still can't outrun me. Turns out the dude wasn't who we were looking for and is now in a sling for nothing. Haha. Don't run from police.”

ANNA:

But this is where it gets interesting. After questioning had highlighted text messages in which Ralph referred to indigenous locals as coons, the N-word and Neanderthals. The Ex-policeman reflected that he was a product of his society, and this is where he made some pretty explosive allegations about entrenched racism within the NT police.

ANGE:

After the break, the questions being raised about the culture inside the NT police.

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ANGE:

Anna, the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker is also looking into allegations of systemic racism within the NT police. When asked about that, what did Zachary Rolfe have to say?

ANNA:

In the witness box, Rolfe claimed that racism was basically a daily occurrence in the NT police. He didn't deny the language that he'd used, but he wanted to claim he wasn't the only one in the force speaking that way. It was normalised. Probably, most interestingly, and when you think about Rolfe and his character and his desire to be a part of the Tactical Response Group, was the grenade he lobbed in the direction of that exact task force. He talked about an annual party held by the elite police squad that he'd wanted to get into, the TRG. This is what he said.

Up until recently, the Territory Response Group had an annual party where they could issue awards to some of the members, said Rolfe. He described one of the awards as the Coon Of The Year award that would go to the police officer for the most coon like behaviour. This is accepted and this is known about by multiple people who have given evidence here, Ralph claimed. And multiple people have lied about it.

ANGE:

And those are pretty shocking allegations, Anna. How did the NT police respond to what Zachary Rolfe was saying in the witness box?

ANNA:

They moved very fast. The following day after Rolfe made the allegations about the awards, they tabled for affidavits from officers who were a part of the TRG, or what had once been a part of that elite police force.

The senior officers confirmed that the squad used to have a ward that they called the Nakhuda Award, but they said it had no racist connotations. Acting Commander Sean Gill, who began work with the TGA in 1991, he told the court the awards were part of an informal and light-hearted debrief. This award was given to the person who essentially made the biggest mistake of the year, Gill explained, and was designed to highlight the caveman ethos, highlighting an outstanding lack of excellence. None of these awards have any connotation to rice, said another officer, Senior Sergeant Meachem King. Another officer explained that the actual physical award was a stick that had been retained during riots and Wadeye. A weapon, basically a weaponised sort of club, and that had been utilised as the awards physical significance.

So those affidavits were tabled. That was the first day and potentially the spot fires had been put out. Friday morning, Rolfe returns to court, and this time he's got copies of certificates that he alleged worthy were copies of the actual awards that were handed out amongst the TRG. One certificate, a 2013 award for lack of hygiene and incompetence, had the Aboriginal flag as its background. That was explosive. There was a bit of a pin drop when he brought this out. So despite police saying the award had nothing to do with race, Rolfe is alleging that this certificate is the real deal. The lawyer representing the Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, Phil Bolton, looked at a certificate with the Aboriginal flag on it and asked Rolfe, this 2013 award has got everything to do with Aboriginal, hasn't it? Definitely, said Rolfe.

ANGE:

And, Anna, this coronial inquest isn't over and now we have all these kind of new concerns raised over culture in the NT police. Do you think the inquest will spark more questions than answers, especially for the police force?

ANNA:

So after 18 months of being delayed, delayed, delayed and Zachary Rolfe finally takes the stand. The inquest was meant to wrap up at the end of the week with Rolfe’s evidence. Instead, as a result of these really explosive allegations, the inquest has been extended again.

One of Rolfe's lawyers was continually getting up and objecting during his week of evidence, saying, this is not a royal commission into Zachary Rolfe, this is an inquest into a death. And it was a really interesting point, I thought, because the questioning was sort of following these lines of what a Royal Commission might actually do. Which is, is Zachary Rolfe an anomaly or the norm in the NT police? And that seems to be a real, crucial question.

Rolfe will return to the stand in May and there'll be a lot more to unpack. Whether it becomes evidence about the NT police, or whether it becomes evidence about Zachary Rolfe, that remains the question.

ANGE:

Anna, thanks so much for your time today.

ANNA:

Thank you.

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ANGE:

Also in the news today,
Labor’s longest serving foreign minister, Gareth Evans, has urged the government to unfreeze funding to the main UN aid agency that operates within Gaza, UNRWA.

After countries like Canada and Sweden recently unfroze funding, it is believed the Albanese government is also considering the move.

Evans said that while the initial freeze was understandable, he said it was now time Australia quote “get off the fence, and fast.”

And the Australian eSafety Commission will now require search engines to eliminate sexual abuse material from being listed on their platforms and prevent their AI-generation tools from making so-called ‘deep fake’ versions of that content.

The new regulations, which came into effect yesterday, are the first of a raft of changes meant to update Australia’s online safety rules to cope with the rise of AI.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am. We’ll be back again tomorrow.

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