NT Independent

CLP’s child protection policies mixed up: NAAJA

Children and Families Minister Robyn Cahill prioritised changing child protection laws over the past two years to suit her party’s ideology while ignoring her department’s culpability in failing to keep children safe, NAAJA says, while the co-author of the report that identified the department’s extensive failings says she is “very confident” action will occur within the next six months, with other groups warning reforms will reduce the threshold to remove children by an already overwhelmed department.

Se Acabo: From child protection to YiSSA, Indigenous Territorians are being failed by the system

The inhumane and cruel decision to put an end to YiSSA, for no real or good reason, takes it to ‘another level’ of human rights abuse, writes John Lawrence, who says the cruelty sends a message to Indigenous families that they do not belong and have no future.

Dunny fire sparks police arson probe

A public toilet fire at Bundilla Beach is under investigation by the NT Police as suspected arson, with police searching for five youths they say are responsible for $230,000 worth of damage to public property.

Former NSW Ambulance chief appointed CEO of Royal Flying Doctors SA/NT

Former NSW Ambulance commissioner Dominic Morgan has been appointed chief executive officer of the Royal Flying Doctor Service SA/NT, weeks after the organisation was awarded the NT Government’s $625 million aeromedical retrieval contract for the Top End.

‘System-wide reset’: NT Children and Families exposed for botched handling of case of abducted five-year-old

A report into the NT Department of Children and Families’ handling of the case of a five-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted and murdered earlier this year has found multiple failures by the department, including that child “safety plans” are not adequately monitored and that the case of Kumanjayi Little Baby was not an isolated failing in the department rife with leadership shortcomings and no accountability.

‘It is beyond ridiculous’: Cyclone Tracy ‘memorial’ FOI investigation not finished after 22 months

Darwin Council is still withholding records on the controversial Cyclone Tracy memorial’s design selection two years after an FOI application was filed, citing a non-existent provision of the Information Act to justify its refusal, while the Information Commissioner has yet to resolve a cyclone survivor’s complaint after 22 months.

Seabreeze Festival cancelled for 2027

The Nightcliff Seabreeze Festival will not go ahead in 2027, with organisers citing rising costs, increasing volunteer workloads and indifference from the NT Government as major issues, but said they hope to continue it as a biennial event, which could see it return in 2028.

Police say man was stabbed before crashing car in Alice Springs

A man who crashed a car on the median strip of Larapinta Drive in Alice Springs on Sunday morning trapping himself in the vehicle is believed to have been “assaulted with an edged weapon” before getting in the car, NT Police said.

Everyday Territory leaders, it’s time to step up

Democracy is supposed to be one person, one vote, but major party donors buy media, buy influence, buy politicians, and buy votes, writes Phil Scott. Politics as usual works for corporations, not us. How confident are you that the same parties that created our problems will solve them and that doing the same thing will have a different result next time?

‘Restoring the rural lifestyle’: CLP blocks motion calling for NT data centre moratorium

The CLP Government has rejected a motion in Parliament calling for a moratorium on data centres until a public inquiry can investigate their impact, with a Labor MLA warning the CLP is not listening to Territorians at their own peril, specifically in the rural area where the CLP is contradicting its “rural lifestyle” rhetoric by backing a major proposed data centre without consulting residents about its impacts.