The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics under former senior bureaucrat Andrew Kirkman spent $2 million on a deeply flawed and painfully slow internal investigation into the rorting of millions of taxpayer dollars through the Indigenous Employment Provisional Sum scheme by dozens of Territory contractors, that led to the recovery of only $900,000, new internal government documents show.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government’s move to amend the Sacred Sites Act to ultimately push through a hotel project at the Darwin Waterfront precinct against traditional owners’ wishes may spark a direct conflict with the Federal Government, as the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians has vowed to take the matter to Canberra.
Acting Chief Minister Gerard Maley has changed his story about when he first became aware Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby was related to a hit-and-run driver who received no jail time for killing an Aboriginal man, raising further questions about why the CLP Government was not upfront with the public about the issue, while also raising a possible breach of the ministerial code of conduct.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government’s real reason for amending the Sacred Sites Act earlier this year has become clearer, after it moved to alter the existing Authority Certificate for the Darwin Waterfront precinct to ensure a proposed high-rise hotel project can move ahead, despite repeated objections from traditional owners.
Acting Chief Minister Gerard Maley defended Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby’s failure to publicly disclose she is related to a hit-and-run driver who killed an Indigenous man last year before publicly commenting on the case, saying she is “doing a great job” as “the number one law person up here”, adding he only learned about the connection “three or four weeks ago”, despite the lawyer representing Jake Danby working at his brother’s law firm.
Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has refused to stand down for failing to publicly disclose that the hit-and-run driver who killed an Aboriginal man and injured another and who avoided jail last week was related to her before publicly commenting on the case, stating she told Lia Finocchiaro about the matter last year – but won’t say how – while the Chief Minister has now gone on holidays and is unavailable for comment.
UPDATED: The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has appealed the sentence handed out to 24-year-old Jake Danby for hit-and-run causing death, following public uproar over the lenient sentence this week which spared him jail time, despite Danby bragging in text messages about hitting two Aboriginal men, killing one of them, who he called an “oxygen thief” while saying he would not go to jail.
The 24-year-old man who struck two Aboriginal men with his car, leaving one to die as he fled the scene, and who received no jail time this week for the crime, is related to Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby, who publicly commented on the matter Thursday morning at a press conference, but did not disclose the familial relation and her clear conflict of interest.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government has claimed it has overseen 184 “new” officers joining the NT Police since the August 2024 election, but failed to disclose that 105 experienced officers left the force since October, while the 184 figure is also disputed by the NT Police force itself, which says the sworn officer count has only increased by 48 over that time period.
After many months of searching, the Finocchiaro CLP Government has hired a former adviser to the NSW police commissioner and noted “crisis management specialist” as its new director of communications.
Newly-elected Darwin Lord Mayor Peter Styles has sent defeated candidate Amye Un a cease and desist legal letter, attempting to publicly silence her on questionable legal grounds over her allegation he and his election team were involved in the production and distribution of fraudulent how-to-vote cards during the mayoral election, which is currently under investigation by the NT Police.
Larrakia traditional owner Richard Fejo says he was sacked from his role as chair of the Australia Day Council NT by Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro this week after criticising the CLP Government, a move he says is part of a “childish strategy” by the government to silence dissenting voices.
