The CLP Government’s new lobbyist register will not require ministers to publicly disclose who they meet with and will exempt major lobbyists, including gas companies fracking the Beetaloo Basin and other corporate firms that donate to political parties, from needing to be on the register, which a national public integrity body says is “just not right”.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has declared 2025 the “Year of Action”, laying out her government’s vision for the next 11 months, including its plans for economic growth, cutting crime and repairing the budget, suggesting that while her government was still investigating what measures from the Langoulant review into government spending it would adopt, the millions spent on consultancy companies was “unacceptable”.
CLP Education Minister Jo Hersey says she will now disclose the gift of a free luxury jet flight to a boozy brunch paid for by a wealthy Katherine businesswoman, after breaching the Disclosures Act by failing to report the gift, with the Opposition calling for the Minister to be reprimanded for flouting NT disclosure laws on multiple occasions.
The CLP Government is expected to announce it will change current legislation to permit “probationary” corrections officers into the job without having to complete current training requirements, a move criticised by the union as raising serious safety issues for the public and officers, while also taking the “first step towards privatisation” of the NT’s jails.
EXCLUSIVE: CLP Education Minister Jo Hersey took a luxury private jet between Katherine and Darwin to attend a boozy, “bottomless” high tea at the Hilton Garden Inn Darwin in early December, but she claims no taxpayer money was expended despite posting photos of the jaunt on her government-funded social media account, which comes as the Minister was also caught out misleading Territorians about her disclosable interests.
Jetstar will offer direct seasonal service between Darwin and the Gold Coast in late June, after receiving an undisclosed amount of taxpayer cash to operate the service.
The CLP Government and the Labor Opposition have not ruled out supporting independent MLA Justine Davis’s calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the rorting of a government Indigenous employment scheme that saw an estimated $60 million fraudulently obtained by up to 146 Territory contractors.
The CLP Government will plunge the Territory into further debt rather than find necessary cost savings of $450 million a year, with Treasurer Bill Yan proclaiming the move “responsible action to repair the budget”.
An independent MLA has called for a full parliamentary inquiry into how $60 million was stolen from Territory taxpayers through the Indigenous Employment Provisional Sum scheme, with only $900,000 recovered and two small-time contractors jailed for rorting $300,000, while larger companies suspected of obtaining millions were never charged.
EXCLUSIVE: The staggering amount of money believed stolen by NT construction companies through the government’s flawed Indigenous Employment Provisional Sum scheme has finally been released, following the conclusion of multiple investigations into the troubled program that ended with only two small-time contractors going to jail, with the NT Government recovering less than 1.5 per cent of the total funds it suspected were rorted.
EXCLUSIVE: Investigations into the largest known fraud ever perpetrated in the Northern Territory have ended with only two small-time contractors convicted of defrauding the Indigenous Employment Provisional Sum scheme, that saw potentially tens of millions of taxpayer money rorted by dozens of NT construction companies.
WATCH THE VIDEO: A video of prominent Darwin silk Jon Tippett recorded in the police watch house shortly after he was arrested for drunkenly crashing into a police car last November, shows him repeatedly laughing at the situation while asking officers to “make it a whole lot easier” on him, the NT Independent can reveal.
