NT Independent

NT Police spent $400k on BMWs for police college, $10k on anti-racism ‘merchandise’ amid budget blowout

The director of the NT Police college authorised nearly $400,000 for the supply and delivery of four BMW 330is from Melbourne despite Subarus used as official police vehicles, newly released police expenditure records show, while the NT Police executive team also spent nearly $10,000 at local shop ‘Stickers and Stuff’ on “promotional merchandise” for its anti-racism program in a year that saw its budget blow-out by more than $14 million.

Senior bureaucrat sues government over ‘one-minute’ termination reversal

A former Northern Territory deputy chief executive has taken the government to court, alleging she was unfairly sacked after allegedly speaking disrespectfully about Education Minister Jo Hersey, and claiming a later “loss of confidence” reason for her dismissal was a pretext, issued one minute after an earlier misconduct-based termination was withdrawn and just two days after she asserted her natural justice rights.

Kids’ cat food theft ring swapped kitty snacks for Scooby snacks, police say

A 45-year-old woman has been arrested and charged following a drug and weapons raid in Gray, where police allege part of her supply operation involved youths stealing cat food from a supermarket in exchange for marijuana, with officers later seizing drugs, cash and a range of weapons including batons, tasers, knives and samurai swords.

Boy arrested over fatal stabbing which followed feud violence and AFL standing down teams

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested over the stabbing death of a man in Tennant Creek, NT Police said, a death which came amid an ongoing feud between families from outlying communities that police say has already led to violent clashes and the seizure of a large number of weapons this week.

$2m for Gardens Oval redevelopment on the way

The NT Government has earmarked $2 million to initiate the long-delayed first stage of the redevelopment of Darwin’s Gardens Oval.

Reason for Darwin rates increase not provided: Councillor

City of Darwin staff did not provide enough detail about staffing costs and contracted service provider expenses to councillors to justify the recent 5.5 per cent rates increase for 2026-27, a lone councillor has said while calling for better transparency on operational expenditure at council.

‘You can’t let a department investigate itself’: Governance expert calls for external Acacia probe

A governance expert has called for an independent external investigation into the troubled Acacia IT project implementation team, that family members of deceased employee Shaun Joyce allege contributed to his death, warning that internal reviews lack transparency with unanswered questions remaining about whether the actions of the department’s chief executive Catherine Weber formed part of the investigation.

Telstra outage affecting parts of NT restored after crews travelled 1,000 kms

UPDATED: Telstra says it has restored a significant service outage due to a fibre break along the Stuart Highway, which affected communities in the NT, WA, and South Australia, that saw crews travelling more than 1,000 kms to fix.

Two fuel stations issued infringement notices for alleged over-charging by Consumer Affairs

Two fuel stations in the Greater Darwin area are facing nearly $20,000 in fines each for allegedly charging motorists more for fuel at the bowser than advertised, following compliance checks by NT Consumer Affairs, but it remains unclear why the national corporation that owns them was not hit with higher fines the government implemented earlier this year.

Conflict of interest issues in Integrity and Ethics Commissioner office raised at Estimates

The recently appointed Integrity and Ethics Commissioner says he sees nothing that would preclude newly appointed chief executive and former NT Police commissioner Reece Kershaw from being involved in sensitive investigations into NT Police and other corruption probes, while suggesting any potential conflicts of interest raised would be kept secret.