Claims of an antiracism ‘cult’ are an excuse for the settler justice system to ignore its failures

‘Like many settler authority figures before her, Justice Judith Kelly reserves the right to define what is and is not racism.’ Photograph: Supreme Court of the Northern Territory

In early June, the Australian carried a report of an exclusive interview with Justice Judith Kelly, a sitting judge of the Northern Territory’s supreme court, about what she called a “total epidemic of domestic violence” that has killed more than 50 Aboriginal women in the NT since the year 2000. She wanted people to know what is happening to Aboriginal women. Then, she said, people would care, and “maybe something can be done about it”.

But Kelly went further than mere consciousness-raising.