Police Commissioner Michael Murphy is the “senior public officer” the ICAC found engaged in improper conduct by hiring a mate for a senior role in the NT Police, but he has refused to resign, despite the findings that his actions amounted to “negligence and incompetence”.
Not a single Country Liberal Party MLA has moved to call out improper conduct at the highest levels of the public service and their government’s failure to take action on an ICAC report that found the head of a major agency engaged in “negligence and incompetence” by appointing a friend to a job – with the silence particularly deafening from the party’s ministerial team, who are obligated to uphold the “highest standards of integrity” and “ensure public confidence” in government.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government will lobby the Federal Labor Government this week to secure a commitment on the Darwin Port amid solvency issues with Chinese-owned company Landbridge, but the Chief Minister would not say if leasing the nationally strategic asset to China in 2015 was a mistake made by her previous CLP government.
An independent MLA says she will publicly name the “senior public officer” who an ICAC investigation found engaged in “negligence and incompetence” concerning a hiring process in his department when Parliament resumes, while Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro stormed out of a press conference Tuesday morning after facing questions about her lack of action.
Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has declined to comment on whether she will take any action against Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb, after it was revealed his son and daughter-in-law were hired for jobs in his office that he created and did not publicly advertise, while the woman Mr Babb pursued in the Supreme Court for hiring a friend says the “blatant hypocrisy” is destroying the public’s trust in the office.
Chief Justice Michael Grant has issued a rare public statement in the wake of public outrage over a young offender being granted bail to fly to Lajamanu on a taxpayer-funded chartered plane for a funeral that he later absconded from, telling the public their criticism of the situation is misguided and that they fail to understand “the circumstances of compassionate bail”, while also criticising the current legislation.
EXCLUSIVE: The NT’s Director of Public Prosecutions created new jobs in his office that were ultimately filled by his son and daughter-in-law, but Lloyd Babb says he was not involved in recruitment for the positions that weren’t publicly advertised and claims he declared a conflict of interest upon learning that his family members just happened to apply for the mysterious jobs.
The CLP Government knew since last September that private maternity services were shutting down in Darwin, but did nothing to warn the public or prepare frontline clinical staff, an independent MLA says, leaving everyone “blindsided” by the move.
EXCLUSIVE: The publicly-funded Darwin Waterfront Corporation hired board member Andrew Kirkman’s wife for a key role that was not advertised late last year and that came with an undisclosed hefty pay packet, the NT Independent can reveal, raising questions about undeclared conflicts of interest at the corporation and a cosy culture of political appointments and nepotism.
A CLP backbencher has accused Senator Malarndirri McCarthy’s staffer of attempting to “physically intimidate” an unnamed CLP MLA while Parliament was sitting last week, claiming the staffer followed up the “harassment” by making “unfounded accusations”.
A senior NT public servant on an executive contract dishonestly claimed sick days while he was gambling at a casino, on fishing trips and golfing, which amounted to “corrupt conduct” the ICAC has found after a four-year long investigation, but chose not to name the executive or the government department involved.
The independence of the Northern Territory Auditor-General’s office has been identified as “the most vulnerable to executive influence” of any jurisdiction in the country, according to an independent review of the AG’s office, with the current public sector watchdog calling for funding pressures and internal system problems to be addressed by the Finocchiaro Government to ensure its crucial independence continues.
