Former Don Dale Youth Detention Centre inmate Dylan Voller has been joined by independent MP Bob Katter in a push to provide young detainees rehabilitation not jail time.

In a special Alice Springs edition of Q&A on Monday night to celebrate NAIDOC week, Voller asked the panel why young people in remote areas are locked up without any attempt of rehabilitation.

Voller was central to the NT Royal Commission into Youth Detention in April after he was abused inside the Don Dale facility as a teenager, his story exposed on Four Corners showing him restrained to a chair and with him spit-hooded.

The panel unanimously supported his position, with the leader of Katter’s Australian Party comparing youth detainees to animals stuck in a steel cage.

.@RealBobKatter says we put in a wild kid & get back a professional criminal. @DaleMcIver thinks teaching life skills is better #QandA pic.twitter.com/gD94nGF4rh

— QandA (@QandA) July 3, 2017

“There’s going to be no more of this stupidity. The cost of a child in detention in Queensland is $580,000 a year,” Mr Katter said.

“We put in a wild kid and we get back a professional criminal. Oh, jeez, that was a great achievement!

“Putting a kid in a steel cage like an animal after going on a joy ride with his big brother – seems to me unfair and unjust.”

Shadow Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health Warren Snowdon echoed Mr Katter’s statement, calling for better funding to organisations such as Bushmob – an Aboriginal corporation to help young people get their lives back on track.

“Locking kids up is not the answer,” Mr Snowdon said.

Why cant we have more youth detainees from the juvenile center go to Bushmob? Josie Douglas & @manwiththemo respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/DmsZBvd4o6

— QandA (@QandA) July 3, 2017

“Putting people in a position where they can’t have any interaction – no agency about what’s happening to them – being able to control their own lives in even some small way, you can’t do that in a lock-up somewhere.

“But you can, if you’re part a team, like in Bushmob, give them an opportunity to accept trust.

“It’s a very different way of dealing with young people than has been traditionally the case. Bushmob is a very fine example of a program which does work and deserves more resources.”

Chair of Tourism Central Australia Dale McIver agreed, saying the Northern Territory has “issues” in relation to how detainees are policed.

“There’s no point in sugar-coating it. We certainly do have some issues with law and order,” Ms McIver said.

“I think there is a really great opportunity to get out there and teach these kids.

“Teach them some life skills that they can bring in to employment. We’ve just heard that we have challenges with employment in town. Let’s get these troublesome kids, get them out there, teach them some really good life skills.”

Alice Springs council member Jacinta Price called for a “more therapeutic approach” to be taken in relation to Indigenous children.

“There needs to be more of a therapeutic approach when we’re coming to dealing with children,” Ms Price said.

“If we look at the Indigenous population, most children – a lot of Indigenous children – have experienced family violence of some form of trauma at a very young age, 38 per cent of the Indigenous population are under 15. So we’re looking at a huge percentage of Indigenous children in this situation.”