The federal indigenous affairs minister admits he must do more to raise issues with the states and territories after revelations of abuse of young boys in Northern Territory detention.
But Nigel Scullion insists he didn't act on briefings about abuse at the Don Dale detention centre before graphic footage aired on ABC's Four Corners program because he was convinced the Northern Territory government was dealing with it.
The department of prime minister and cabinet also believed the NT government was addressing the issues.
The territory had adopted 15 of 16 recommendations made by a review of NT detention - commissioned by its government and released in February 2015 - and had signed off on an August 2015 children's commissioner report.
"Everything we had seen... indicated to us that they had taken the two reports seriously," associate secretary Andrew Tongue told a Senate committee on Friday.
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched a royal commission after the ABC aired footage in July of boys being tear gassed and placed in spit hoods.
Senator Scullion admits the program showed a culture of cover up and brutality at Don Dale of which he was previously unaware.
"It was shocking," he said.
"It has given us all a shake."
The minister used his opening statement to "set the record straight" about what he knew about Don Dale and the boys held there.
He confirmed his office was given a parliamentary question time briefing on Don Dale in October last year and the issue had been raised in another meeting.
But he said none of the briefings or public reports on the alleged mistreatment were as graphic as the footage aired on the ABC.
"The footage shown during that program was deeply disturbing a way no written report can fully convey," he said.
Labor senator Jenny McAllister took issue with that, pointing to reports in October that described young boys being told to eat bird faeces and forced to fight each other.
In an at-times heated exchange, Senator McAllister accused the minister of making contradictory statements - including about who asked for the briefing in October.
She also questioned why Senator Scullion had told media on the day after the Four Corners report that he had not received a brief on the issue.
A formal brief was different to a briefing, he said, because the former had to be signed off.
"I had no briefings that would lead me to suspect that those matters that we'd seen... were occurring," he said.
He said allegations he had misled the public were "absolute garbage".
NT media have been reporting abuse at the Don Dale centre since 2014 but it wasn't until the July ABC report with graphic footage that it went national.
But the minister said no one from Labor had asked him a question about the abuse in parliament.
Senator Scullion has written to all state and territory ministers to seek assurances about detention practices and insists he's taking a more proactive approach to briefings on indigenous issues.
The minister has also offered funding to states that do not have a mandatory custody notification service - a legal service hotline for indigenous Australians taken to prison.
