The corruption investigation into how troubled water bottling company NT Beverages was gifted $10 million of taxpayer money just before it went out of business has been shut down due to “jurisdictional” issues, ICAC Michael Riches said, referring the “concerning” matter to the Chief Minister for further action through a different body.
The Fyles Labor Government will today “strengthen and modernise” its sexual offence laws, it said, including forbidding good character references for child sex offenders for reduced sentences, a practice Labor engaged in last year during sentencing of its former party secretary for repeatedly raping a child.
Labor MLA Brent Potter has issued an impassioned public plea for information about what he alleges is the suspicious death of a peacock in his electorate that he had been in “awe” of for its “beauty and elegance”.
Allegations of political influence in the ICAC’s investigation into Labor’s alleged misuse of public funds during the 2020 NT election have been raised by independent MLAs, following revelations a party member with undisclosed conflicts of interest was involved, while Commissioner Michael Riches has admitted “errors have been made”.
Speaker Mark Monaghan’s decision to permit two of his Labor colleagues to use their taxpayer-funded fuel cards for personal interstate holidays was issued secretly on December 23 to an internal government server with no notice – five days after one MLA had already embarked on his trip – and nine days before it came into effect, new documents show.
EXCLUSIVE: The major ICAC investigation into the Territory Labor Government’s misuse of public funds for political campaigning during the 2020 election has been compromised, the NT Independent can reveal, after an ICAC staffer involved in the investigation failed to disclose two potential conflicts of interest, including that he had previously discussed a career on the fifth floor with a key witness.
EXCLUSIVE: The Office of the ICAC hired a Labor Party member last year to undertake unspecified legal duties in the organisation, the NT Independent can reveal, which comes following revelations a CLP operative was hired last month as an investigator that Commissioner Michael Riches contends now was an “organisational failure”.
The NT’s anti-corruption commissioner Michael Riches was widely expected to make a public comment on his office’s recent hiring of a CLP operative on Monday, but said because his extraordinary letter to the Chief Minister on Saturday was reported by the NT Independent, he has “decided not to make a further statement”.
EXCLUSIVE: Anti-corruption commissioner Michael Riches sent an extraordinary letter to the Chief Minister on Saturday, following public criticism of his office hiring a CLP operative as an investigator, in which he blamed the Fyles Labor Government’s funding cuts for the inability to attract suitable investigators and called for changes to the law to forbid politically-aligned people working in his office.
The Territory’s top judge has been accused of “acting improperly” by a prominent Darwin lawyer over his handling of a complaint against Justice Stephen Southwood that has stalled for nearly two years, after he initially failed to disclose a conflict of interest involving his deep entanglement in the Stella Maris inquiry and “secret communications” following a damning 2015 court ruling.
EXCLUSIVE: The NT’s anti-corruption commissioner has defended hiring a CLP executive member to oversee reports to his office, after Commissioner Michael Riches first indicated he was not aware of his new investigator’s political ties, the NT Independent can reveal.
EXCLUSIVE: Labor Speaker Mark Monaghan secretly charged taxpayers for a late-night flight on Territory Day to the Solomon Islands for an exclusive international parliamentary get-together that involved a ceremony with a giant pig and young men in loincloths, while posting images to social media this week that make it appear he is in Darwin, the NT Independent can reveal.
