Former NSW Ambulance commissioner Dominic Morgan has been appointed chief executive officer of the Royal Flying Doctor Service SA/NT, weeks after the organisation was awarded the NT Government’s $625 million aeromedical retrieval contract for the Top End.
Darwin Council is still withholding records on the controversial Cyclone Tracy memorial’s design selection two years after an FOI application was filed, citing a non-existent provision of the Information Act to justify its refusal, while the Information Commissioner has yet to resolve a cyclone survivor’s complaint after 22 months.
Roughly 70 per cent of employees at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education feel motivated to do their best work, but only 46 per cent think communication is satisfactory, according to a new staff survey, with staff reportedly split between feeling there are positive and supportive teams and broader concerns about toxicity, lack of psychological safety and the lack of merit-based appointments, the last of which was the subject of a recommendation made by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption in 2023.
Self-described “international trade and development consultant” Peter Styles will lead a nine-day, ratepayer-funded international trade delegation to China and Vietnam later this year in his role as Darwin Lord Mayor, which he says will strengthen international partnerships, promote Darwin as a globally-connected tropical capital, and create opportunities for strategic collaboration across Asia, but council will not say how much the trip is expected to cost.
The $355 million Acacia digital health program did not have a proper implementation plan produced until two years after the project started which was not effectively adopted, a consultant who worked on the project has revealed, arguing the system was treated merely as an IT project, rather than a system intended to change how healthcare works, adding those in charge were not prepared to make hard decisions. The consultant said perhaps the most important question of all was why money kept being spent without an understanding of whether value was being achieved.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government will not say if it will continue to implement NT Health’s troubled Acacia digital patient record system and has ignored questions about whether it will adopt the 12 recommendations made in a scathing Public Accounts Committee inquiry report released more than two weeks ago.
The suicide death of Acacia IT system contractor Shaun Joyce was emblematic of staff experiences within the “toxic, fragile and insular” workplace culture that was “cultivated by senior management” and harmful to staff, the Public Accounts Committee report has found, while his sister says project leaders have not honestly reflected on what they did and failed to do to prevent his death.
The Public Accounts Committee has found the troubled Acacia system should only be used to keep patient records, not replace existing NT Health IT systems, after failing to achieve the objectives it was created for, while the committee’s scathing inquiry report recommended no additional money should be allocated beyond the $335 million already spent.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro misrepresented crime statistics when she claimed this week the NT has fallen to 2017 crime levels, a claim that was made despite an official warning that older data cannot be compared with current data following the introduction of new police software, while independent MLA Justine Davis accused the CLP of blatantly manipulating statistics to create a false narrative of community safety.
The lead integration specialist on the Acacia IT project, who was responsible for ensuring its different systems could communicate and exchange data correctly, had his contract terminated two weeks ago, sources have told the NT Independent, making him the latest senior figure to depart the troubled project.
The independent Member for Mulka, Yiŋiya Guyula, has announced he is leaving Parliament effective today, saying the Finocchiaro Government has introduced too many laws that are dehumanising, oppressive and destroying Indigenous communities, and that he can no longer sit in Parliament opposite a government unwilling to listen or form partnerships.
Claravale Station owners were allegedly told by Environment Department staff that the NT Environment Protection Agency did not want to see land clearing applications for assessment and were advised to avoid triggering a referral to the supposedly independent watchdog, according to documents obtained under freedom of information laws, but the department has denied its staff provided that advice and said they instead gave instructions about how to adhere to the legislation.
