A private consultancy company started by one of the Territory’s most senior public servants has recently employed another senior bureaucrat, with both heavily involved in establishing the NT Government’s private investment attraction and gas regulation policies over the past five years, raising questions about the potential for confidential government information to be used for private gain.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government says it may enforce existing legislation from 1949 called the Price Exploitation Prevention Act it says would force fuel retailers to disclose the full cost structure and price margins of its fuel or face jail and could be used to allow the government to set the price, a move that was described by the last CLP government as a rash decision.
NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole has lost a legal bid to keep “serious allegations” about misconduct of officers made by a former assistant commissioner secret, after ineffectively arguing their conduct was “sensitive” and that he preferred the allegations “remain confidential” before a potential settlement could be arranged.
One of the most respected CLP chief ministers in the NT’s history has publicly criticised the current CLP Government and Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby for “absurd” and inaccurate claims around how the Territory’s first euthanasia laws came to be, while accusing the government of being “inept” over its handling of the current proposed legislation.
Disgraced former speaker Kezia Purick threatened to “personally knock” the Australian Christian Lobby “on the head” during a segment on ABC Radio’s Mornings program Thursday that has not been uploaded online, which the Christian group’s director says was a direct threat of violence against Christians in the Territory for their position on voluntary assisted dying.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has returned home from Canberra with no new committed federal cash for flood recovery efforts, pledging instead to dip into the Territory’s over-stretched coffers for a $100 million Flood Recovery Fund that will be overseen by Minister Jo Hersey – the same Minister who drew the ire of the Federal Government by spreading false “speculation” on social media Monday that the NT Government would be billed for ADF members helping clean up Katherine.
UPDATED: Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro is currently in Canberra to plead with the Federal Government for more money to help with flood recovery efforts across the Territory, while her Education Minister spread “speculation” on social media Monday morning that the NT Government will have to pay for 50 ADF personnel from RAAF Base Tindal to assist with cleaning up the Katherine area – which was later confirmed as false.
Speaker Robyn Lambley has taken CLP backbencher Tanzil Rahman to task in an extraordinary public scolding in Parliament, telling him that threatening defamation action over allegations he bullied two female parliamentary staffers is a direct attempt “to silence people who have every right to speak”, the latest blow in the growing scandal the Chief Minister has tried to ignore.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government used its numbers in Parliament to block backbencher Tanzil Rahman from being investigated by a parliamentary committee over allegations he bullied female staff members, after Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro repeatedly refused to say what action she has taken on the matter and Mr Rahman’s failure to refute the allegations or apologise in a statement over the weekend.
A Labor candidate who sought endorsements from reviled former chief ministers Michael Gunner and Natasha Fyles appears likely to win the Nightcliff by-election with help from the CLP after preferences, according to updated figures on Monday afternoon.
CLP backbencher Tanzil Rahman broke weeks of silence Sunday over bullying allegations in an unusual statement from his electorate office rather than through the CLP’s highly-paid spin doctors, stating he was “deeply offended” by the allegations and “actively considering my legal options”.
A rocket launching company the previous Labor government invested more than $5 million of public funds into has gone into liquidation, with the Chief Minister mocking Labor again for their poor investment decisions, but refusing to answer questions about whether she would now call a public inquiry into how Labor wasted millions of taxpayer money investing in doomed private business enterprises.
