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.
The NT Cattlemen’s Association has been forced to publicly acknowledge it works with Indigenous people and employs women in leadership roles as part of a “diverse and modern” NT cattle industry, following comments from NT Administrator and former NTCA president David Connolly, who claimed on Monday that his racist, sexist and homophobic social media posts, that also included joking about domestic violence and date rape, were a reflection of “the pastoral world”.
Administrator David Connolly says he was a “naive cattleman” mixed up in the high stakes world of “agri-politics” when he made controversial social media comments disparaging Aboriginal people, women and the LGBTQI community and joked about domestic violence and date rape, which he said was “pastoral world” talk, while his former employer at Tipperary Station has provided some insight into why he left the station manager role last year.
Outgoing CDU vice-chancellor Scott Bowman’s legacy of a London campus has been scrapped after the university spent nearly $2 million on the flawed project and hired three of Mr Bowman’s mates with taxpayer money to run it, the university has said, while questions to its council about how it allowed the proposal to proceed have been ignored.
David Connolly was sworn in as the next Administrator of the Northern Territory Friday morning in a red carpet ceremony, starting his tenure by saying he wanted to thank the Larrakia people and “pay respects to them all, past and present”, while outside a Larrakia elder was arrested at what was a peaceful protest of more than a hundred people, which descended into brief chaos after the arrest.
A new video showing NT Administrator David Connolly manhandling anti-fracking activist and current independent Nightcliff candidate Phil Scott at a business conference in 2023, leading to a violent shove and water allegedly thrown in Mr Scott’s face, has been described as “deeply disturbing” and conduct unbecoming of an Administrator. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
