The Action for Alice 2020 Facebook page has been suspended for 28 days, but its owner and local businessman Darren Clark said he will launch a new website on Tuesday and will also be taking to other social media platforms, while pointing the blame for the Facebook ban at Fyles Government operatives and the NT Police executive.
St John Ambulance NT has refused to respond to a union claim there are no regular Tennant Creek-based paramedics, and those who are brought in have to work 96-hour on-call rosters, but four-and-a-half hours after questions were sent, the organisation issued a press release saying they had started a recruiting drive for remote areas.
A man driving nearly 90km/h in a 40km/h zone on an Alice Springs road last Sunday was arrested after failing a roadside breath test, NT Police said, but was too drunk to complete a full breath analysis at the watch house.
The Fyles Government has voted against striking a parliamentary committee that would have investigated how the government spends federal money on Indigenous disadvantage, which was called for by the CLP, citing concerns about the recent federal cash boost of $250 million for Central Australia.
Talks between the Fyles Government and the NT Police Association on a new pay deal appear to have broken down, as the union revealed the preliminary findings of its latest member survey that shows a large number of officers are contemplating leaving the NT and the same number support strike action.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has introduced her government’s new alcohol ban legislation for remote communities on urgency in Parliament that will effectively reinstate former federal laws that lapsed last year, following weeks of pressure and amid a spike in crime and alcohol-related assaults in Alice Springs.
NT Police are seeking witnesses after a man lured a child into an abandoned car and indecently assaulted her in Tennant Creek on Monday night.
Two women have been charged for an alleged sly grog operation from a Gillen home and placed on the NT’s banned drinkers register for three months, NT Police said.
Nurses and midwife staffing numbers at Alice Springs Hospital are down by about 130 full-time equivalent positions, or by about 30 per cent, with some leaving due to violence in the town and fatigue, with casual agency nurses in remote central Australian health clinics being paid $1500 a day, Australia Nursing and Midwifery Federation NT branch secretary Cath Hatcher said.
An alcohol ban will be reinstated for all Aboriginal town camps and communities in the Northern Territory until communities can vote whether or not to opt-out, under new legislation pledged by Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, while the Federal Government has promised $250 million for unspecified projects over an unspecified period of time in central Australia.
Barkly Regional Council Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin has been charged for the second time in less than five months after allegedly driving with marijuana in his system again, sources have told the NT Independent.
The immediate reinstatement of alcohol bans in remote communities and town camps in Central Australia has been delayed following crisis talks between Chief Minister Natasha Fyles and the Prime Minister in Canberra, with the pair stating the report recommending the bans will be discussed by their respective cabinets next week and decisions made then.
