Scott Bowman’s role as vice-chancellor and president of Charles Darwin University has ended, the university has confirmed, amid the growing accreditation scandal that has affected hundreds of TAFE students, Territory businesses and others, with the full scope of the damage still being assessed.
EXCLUSIVE: The NT Police top brass is currently under investigation by a senior member of the Australian Federal Police, the NT Independent can reveal, who was recently sworn in to conduct a probe into “allegations against a number of people up on the top floor”.
The man Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman unilaterally picked to run the uni’s new London campus, Andy Bridges, has inexplicably left the role after less than a year, with Mr Bowman now hiring another mate from Far North Queensland and her wedding singer husband with public funds to lead the university’s development of the same campus, raising conflict of interest concerns.
Opposition Leader Selena Uibo was forced on Friday to admit to abusing the taxpayer-funded government white car service for personal use following an FOI application filed by the ABC, stating she will now pay back the money, which the NT Independent understands was used for transport to dinners in Darwin, a birthday celebration earlier this year and other personal events.
Fake how-to-vote cards distributed to polling centres purportedly for Darwin mayoral candidate Amye Un and another candidate that had their preferences altered has led to an NT Electoral Commission investigation, with the Territory’s anti-corruption body also briefed on the situation, as current mayoral frontrunner Peter Styles and candidate Leah Potter face allegations of breaching the Electoral Act.
Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley’s brother acted as referee for incoming Legal Aid director Catherine Voumard, who was picked for the role by Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby against the recommendations of an independent selection panel, an MLA said in Parliament Wednesday, after Ms Boothby suggested Ms Voumard should have been interviewed for the role because of her connections to Peter Maley’s law firm.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro continues to reject calls for an independent investigation into a series of questionable senior executive appointments in the NT Police top brass that has left the force reeling in recent days, while an integrity expert said the NT needed an interstate senior police officer to conduct the investigation and restore stability and public trust to the police amid the “ridiculous” situation.
Disgraced police commissioner Michael Murphy mysteriously cancelled a recruitment process for the deputy commissioner role in late 2023, multiple sources have told the NT Independent, and later struck a new panel that appointed current Acting Commissioner Martin Dole in the deputy role, which comes amid calls by the police union to investigate all of Mr Murphy’s appointments, that have so far been rejected by the Chief Minister.
EXCLUSIVE: Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has refused to take action against, or publicly identify, a “senior executive public officer” who was found in a new ICAC investigation to have engaged in improper conduct amounting to “negligence and incompetence” concerning the mismanagement of a conflict of interest, who the NT Independent can reveal at this time is the head of a major government agency.
EXCLUSIVE: Senior NT Police officers who lied to the Coroner in sworn statements accessed internal police records stored on computer drives ahead of the ICAC’s investigation into their conduct, with at least one of them allegedly attempting to delete evidence of the racist TRG awards, the NT Independent can reveal.
EXCLUSIVE: Two senior NT Police officers who lied to the court about the existence of racist TRG awards in sworn statements were heavily involved in their making and awarding, the NT Independent can reveal, with one officer who denied the existence of a “coon of the year award” having been involved in awarding the “most coon-like BBQ” certificate in 2007, while another senior officer had his name engraved on the ‘Noogudah club’ – an improvised weapon seized from a remote community during riots that he told the court was “never linked to Indigenous people”.
EXCLUSIVE: A secret statutory declaration filed by one of the five officers accused of lying to the courts about the racist TRG awards shows the officer later admitted to personally creating slide shows with racist images between 2015 and 2022 – directly contradicting the Office of the ICAC’s assertions the racist awards stopped in 2015 – while raising further questions about why none of the officers have been charged for providing false statements to the court.
