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.

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.

The Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education recorded a $2.4 million deficit in the 2025 financial year, following a $2.2 million deficit the previous year, while a recent Auditor-General’s report found the institute has yet to fully implement recommendations made by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption in 2023 and has continued to appoint people to senior roles without holding a selection process.

Doctors are afraid they will lose their jobs if they speak up about massive issues with the Acacia IT system and have no faith in departments or whistleblower protections to shield them from retaliation, the Australian Medical Association said in a startling new submission to the inquiry into the flawed project, while also revealing that real data about the extent of the system’s failures have been hidden from the committee investigating it.