EXCLUSIVE: NT Labor Police Minister Brent Potter shared misogynistic, homophobic and extreme-right political posts on social media, in addition to racist and anti-Semitic material, including one post containing a derogatory slur against gay people, another that promoted “toxic masculinity” and multiple posts from conservative media websites as late as 2019, in which he mocked Federal Labor and former Victorian premier Dan Andrews.
The fallout from revelations that Police Minister Brent Potter shared racist posts on social media came quick on Wednesday, with an independent MLA calling for Mr Potter to resign over his “sickening” behaviour, while Chief Minister Eva Lawler backed her minister, despite claiming in a statement that “there is no room for racism in the Territory”.
EXCLUSIVE: Police Minister Brent Potter’s deleted Facebook posts, in which he quoted Nazis, praised Vladimir Putin, permitted the casual use of the n-word amongst family members and shared a link to a video about how to “destroy” the Black Lives Matter movement, have called into question recent public statements that he “does not tolerate racism”, amid accusations of its widespread prevalence in the NT Police force.
Police Minister Brent Potter has backed Police Commissioner Michael Murphy after an ICAC inquiry found he was too intoxicated to remember if he had racially abused staff at a Chinese restaurant in Alice Springs two decades ago, with the Chief Minister also downplaying the alleged incident as occurring “long ago”, when he was “in his late 20s or early 30s”.
NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy was too drunk in a Chinese restaurant to recall if he racially abused staff, the ICAC says, so the anti-corruption watchdog has determined it is not in the public interest to pursue the complaint, a letter to the coronial inquest has revealed.
Calls for Labor Minister Brent Potter’s resignation mounted Wednesday following revelations in the NT Independent that he privately purchased shares in the government-backed $1.8 billion Seafarms major prawn harvesting project while a senior adviser to the minister responsible, which critics called the latest “appalling” example of the severe lack of integrity surrounding the current government.
EXCLUSIVE: Labor Minister Brent Potter privately purchased shares in an NT Government-backed “major project” while employed as a senior adviser to the minister responsible for the project in 2021, which a leading integrity expert said was “just wrong” and raised serious concerns about the potential use of sensitive government information for personal financial interests.
Police Minister Brent Potter says “racism or discrimination in any form will not be tolerated” with an investigation launched following explosive revelations by Zach Rolfe at the inquiry into the death of Kumanjayi Walker of a widespread culture of racism in the NT Police force, that included high-ranking officers engaging in racist conduct and lying to the coronial inquest.
EXCLUSIVE: CLP Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told a meeting of party members on Saturday that she was concerned for her safety after allegedly receiving “threatening and harassing” messages from a party operative who was convicted of threatening to kill NT Police officers and their family members 20 years ago – a man party president Shane Stone unilaterally attempted to reinstate as a member.
The NT Police’s new estimated $65 million electronic case management system is leading to wrongful arrests, failed prosecutions of domestic violence crimes, not recording all incidents and placing police officers at risk, the head of the police union says, while also accusing the government of misleading the public about historical crime statistics for political purposes.
CLP Leader Lia Finocchiaro has refused to say who in her office made the call not to inform the public about Josh Burgoyne’s car crash in August of last year, while fronting the media on Tuesday for the first time since Mr Burgoyne was charged with careless driving causing serious harm in relation to the crash that sent two healthcare workers to hospital with injuries.
Police Minister Brent Potter has been referred to the NT’s anti-corruption body over allegations he attempted to influence the police investigation into CLP politician Josh Burgoyne’s car crash last August by making public comments that an independent MLA says could be seen as a “breach of the separation of powers” and ultimately “misconduct”.
