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?
Royal Darwin Hospital’s lack of rehab options for stroke victims has turned into a ‘hellish nightmare’ for a woman who will be left to die in the hospital with no other options available to her, writes her concerned and frustrated husband.
The Acting Police Commissioner Martin Dole is a person of intelligence, sensitivity and integrity and has a deep understanding of the issues facing the Northern Territory, writes Andrew Fisher.
There has been a lot going on in Clown Town since our last edition, including a certain “senior officer” being stood down…eventually. It’s clearly time once again to wallow in the misdeeds, malfeasance and asinine behaviour of our leaders and explore that sweet corruption-incompetence nexus that makes us all feel at home in the Great Territory Lifestyle.
The proposed Darwin civic centre should convey a powerful sense of place, honour its surroundings, with a design that evokes the memories of one of Australia’s most significant – even if now intangible – places in which it will sit, but what Darwin Council is offering does none of that, writes Dr Peter Forrest.
