Former NT Police constable Zach Rolfe has taken up the Chief Minister’s challenge to substantiate that five senior officers who misled a coronial inquest about racist awards in the NT Police’s TRG unit committed a crime, completing an 82-page investigation report that he distributed to the Chief Minister, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Acting Police Commissioner on Tuesday, highlighting the ICAC’s failure to properly investigate the officers’ conduct.
EXCLUSIVE: Tourism Minister and Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby’s chief of staff worked for Alastair Shields at the Darwin Waterfront Corporation for more than a decade before being seconded to Ms Boothby’s office last August, the NT Independent can reveal, raising questions about the Minister’s office’s ability to objectively review a “briefing” the Minister requested into concerns of improper conduct at the taxpayer-funded corporation.
Business and Asian Relations Minister Robyn Cahill has travelled to Singapore as part of a Territory trade delegation to “strengthen ties and promote investment opportunities”, but her office would not say who exactly she is meeting with in the Asian city-state.
The CLP Minister responsible for the Darwin Waterfront Corporation has balked at ordering an external investigation into possible misuse of public resources and unresolved conflicts of interest at the taxpayer-funded organisation, choosing instead to keep the matter internal, while questions have also been raised about conflicts of interest with the ICAC and the DWC’s chief executive.
EXCLUSIVE: Senior government executive Andrew Kirkman advocated for a pay rise for Darwin Waterfront Corporation CEO Alastair Shields, despite various conflicts of interest and while he was acting head public servant, six months before the DWC hired Mr Kirkman’s wife for an unadvertised role on a hefty pay packet, a secret government memo obtained by the NT Independent has revealed.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has caused confusion with her public remarks about the five lying officers who misled a coronial inquest over their involvement in racist TRG awards, telling Parliament today that they are currently under an NT Police “internal review”, but later saying “this matter is closed” when asked what action she is taking as Police Minister to clean up the mess.
There may be a review currently ongoing that includes the Director of Public Prosecution’s questionable hiring practices, involving his son and daughter-in-law being hired for unadvertised jobs, Attorney-General Marie Clare Boothby says, and there may not be, but she stressed “nothing is off the table” when asked directly if she is reviewing the questionable appointments.
EXCLUSIVE: Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb was involved in more questionable hiring practices in his office that do not appear to have followed proper processes – outside of his own family members – the NT Independent can reveal, including hiring one lawyer to a non-advertised role last year who is now a senior adviser to the Attorney-General.
CLP Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby released a secret ICAC report in Parliament Thursday that probed the NT Police’s and DPP’s pursuit of former children’s commissioner Colleen Gwynne for hiring a mate for a senior job, finding the previous Labor government entered into an undisclosed payout deal with Ms Gwynne after her trial was aborted, but before the DPP could appeal the judge’s decision.
The ICAC’s report into Police Commissioner Michael Murphy’s improper conduct in hiring a mate for a senior police executive role has contradicted Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s account of events, raising more questions about why she chose not to take any action against the commissioner for more than a week and initially remained silent on the scandal.
Territorians will pay for a high-priced Melbourne lawyer to defend senior government executive Andrew Kirkman’s actions at an upcoming Federal Circuit Court hearing in Darwin, after another court found he threatened to blackmail a female staffer and inflicted a mental health injury on her while engaging in “aggressive” and “threatening” behaviour in 2021.
The Opposition says it will be demanding answers from Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro when Parliament resumes Tuesday morning, calling for the release of the full Operation Apollo report and for her to explain why a so-called “educational tool” for the public service has been kept secret, while Ms Finocchiaro said on Monday she was still waiting for advice from the ICAC before tabling the report in Parliament. That and other issues are expected to dominate this week of parliamentary sittings.
