A new 10-year government funding agreement for the Territory’s horse racing industry will see the controversial $12 million grant to the Darwin Turf Club essentially forgiven in exchange for less money being awarded to the club over the next 10 years, the Fyles Government announced last night.
EXCLUSIVE: A recruitment agency embroiled in a NSW parliamentary investigation into a lucrative political appointment, is the same firm that controversially shortlisted Jamie Chalker for the NT police commissioner position amid allegations of corruption, the NT Independent can reveal.
The Opposition CLP nominated disgraced former speaker Kezia Purick to resume the role of Speaker in Parliament today, two years to the day after she was forced to resign for being found to have engaged in corrupt conduct by the ICAC while in the role between 2018 and 2020.
The ICAC did not provide procedural fairness to former Darwin Turf Club board member Damien Moriarty before publishing adverse findings that he breached the public trust over his role in the $12 million taxpayer-funded Darwin Turf Club grandstand, a Supreme Court judge has ruled, and that the ICAC acted outside of his jurisdiction in making the findings.
Justice Minister Chansey Paech refused to publicly disclose how many Corrections jobs are currently vacant during Estimates hearings despite possessing the information, the union says, amid growing concerns around corrections officers’ safety and high attrition rates.
ANALYSIS: This week’s Budget Estimates hearings have again raised some truly troubling facts about corruption in this place and how the Gunner, sorry, Fyles Government continually fails to address it, choosing instead to excuse it and in at least one instance we heard of this week, foster it.
Department of Infrastructure chief executive Andrew Kirkman told Estimates hearings he has no idea why the ICAC is conducting a review of policies and procedures at the Katherine DIPL office, and initially claimed no knowledge of a report his department ordered into corruption allegations at the office in 2019.
Territorians love the financial position of the Northern Territory, Treasurer Eva Lawler told Budget Estimates hearings on Wednesday, and are “stopping me in the street” because everyone is “optimistic” about the government’s books.
Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Michael Riches appeared to reveal this morning in Estimates hearings that the ICAC employee charged with allegedly disclosing confidential information is his executive assistant Kate Johnson.
The NT’s anti-corruption watchdog was forced to end an investigation into “serious” allegations that Labor Government ministers were misled by an unnamed individual, after ICAC Michael Riches was unable to access Cabinet documents, the commissioner disclosed during Estimates hearings on Tuesday.
A Northern Territory teacher who was sacked over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate has been reinstated and awarded backpay, after the Fair Work Commission ruled in her favour, in a case that exposed the government’s failure to consider “reasonable” personal health concerns of employees.
EXCLUSIVE: A major fraud case involving the alleged rorting of taxpayer funds has been stalled in court for nearly three years due to a delay in a pre-trial decision by Justice Stephen Southwood, who is now expected to move on the matter by the end of the month, after the NT Independent raised the issue with the NT Chief Justice.
