An environment conducive to corruption and undermining the rule of law has been created in the Northern Territory, with serious reforms needed to stop it from accelerating further, but our current Chief Minister and government have demonstrated an inability to grapple with such essential tasks needed for the benefit of everyone, writes Dr Don Fuller.
The favourable treatment given by the government to former ICAC Michael Riches, departmental CEO Andrew Kirkman, and police commissioner Jamie Chalker contrasts starkly with the less powerful public servants like Maria Rust and Zach Rolfe, leading to further evidence of the NT being a failed state, writes Dr Don Fuller.
Experienced, highly qualified professional investigators with no connection to the NT Police Force are absolutely essential if justice, the ultimate aim, is ever to be achieved in the death of Kumanjayi White, writes Darwin barrister John Lawrence, adding there is simply no way in 2025 this can be achieved by any branch of the NTPF – the trust required for that to occur no longer exists.
To Close the Gap of Indigenous disadvantage governments at all levels cannot continue with the same failing policies, expecting that next year we will get a different result, we need a radical redirection because the parlous state of our finances, and our social fabric demand it, writes Bob Beadman.
Ministerial staff sitting on selection panels for public service positions, a department CEO keeping his job after a judge found he inflicted a mental health injury on an employee, and allegations of a police commissioner being influenced by politicians to lay a murder charge against a police officer, have all contributed to the NT’s status as a failed state, Dr Don Fuller writes.
From the beginning of its existence the Litchfield Council prided itself on not being over regulatory, and not taking on the responsibilities of government, but proposed new bylaws change that writes Gerry Wood.
Ministers taking jobs in portfolio areas soon after leaving office with no punishment for code of conduct violations, while chief ministers permit ongoing unethical behaviour by the public service and the police executive, all contribute to the NT’s status as a failed state, writes Dr Don Fuller.
The cronyism exposed at the Waterfront Corporation is the latest illustration of the perception of ongoing graft, corruption and nepotism in the public service, which is part of the wider dysfunction in the Territory that has led to a failed state, writes Dr Don Fuller in his first instalment examining the major governance failings that have besieged the Northern Territory since self-government.
Most of the world is trying to reduce the number of people who spend time in prison – not because of some wokesque preference for the rights of criminals over the rights of victims – but because prison increases the likelihood of violent reoffending, writes criminal lawyer Russell Marks.
The Northern Territory criminal court system is now a broken shambles which, although appearing to function, is actually in the process of collapsing and has become unsustainable, writes John Lawrence, in his first regular column for the NT Independent.
LETTER: The CLP Finocchiaro Government observed while in opposition how infuriated and fed up the public and public service employees are with corruption, writes Owen Pike, while our corruption bucket is now overflowing with slime, gunk, and sludge, which the previous government filled but the current one is yet to deal with, as their own bucket fills up.
Dr Don Fuller asks what could possibly could go wrong with Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman’s plans to provide courses to students in the United Kingdom?
