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.
A 53-year-old man is facing multiple drug charges after being pulled over south of Alice Springs on Wednesday morning where police allegedly found a quantity of meth, cannabis, Valium tablets and heroin.
ANALYSIS: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right when he said this week that governments needed to do better for the Northern Territory and the NT Government now led by Labor Chief Minister Natasha Fyles needs to have its come to jesus moment after years of misusing federal Indigenous disadvantage money that has led to the recent troubles.
UPDATED: The Fyles Government must explain to Territorians what their plans are to cut funding for frontline police staff in the middle of a crime crisis, the Opposition, police union and an independent MLA say, after Police Minister Kate Worden was photographed with a secret memo that revealed proposed massive budget cuts to the NT Police over the next four years.
A confidential Cabinet document photographed in Police Minister Kate Worden’s hands appears to show the Fyles Government intends to cut the police budget in the middle of a crime crisis by $16 million next financial year and a staggering $31 million over the subsequent three financial years, with “frontline staff reductions” expected, the NT Independent can reveal.
