Police Commissioner Michael Murphy flew to Singapore on holidays Thursday afternoon, after spending just a few hours in crime-stricken Alice Springs, a police source has said, while NT Police confirmed he was on “scheduled leave”, which came ahead of the Chief Minister also leaving town early.
Close to 90 per cent of St John Ambulance paramedics and patient transport officers who responded to a United Workers Union survey said they do not have confidence in the organisation’s executive, while 83 per cent they still have concerns about clinical procedures and patient safety, following a damning government review.
Environmental group Lock the Gate Alliance says it is seeking a Federal Court injunction to halt Tamboran Resource’s fracking operations in the Beetaloo Basin, arguing it needs to be assessed under federal environment laws concerning its water use, before proceeding.
Video of a stolen ute in a remote community shows a different story to the one portrayed by police media in late October after a massive pursuit of another stolen ute involved up to 10 police vehicles – including the Territory Response Group – ending in what police described at the time as a “seamless coordination across multiple police teams and communities”, but which was a “volatile” and “dangerous” situation that put the public at risk.
There is no evidence to support St John Ambulance chief executive Andrew Tombs’ claim the organisation has addressed the urgent recommendations made in a damning report into patient treatment, that found multiple failures and poor decisions resulted in harm to patients and significant risk to staff, the United Workers Union has said.
St John Ambulance NT chief executive officer Andrew Tombs told staff the ambulance provider has no record of harm to patients from its treatment, despite the author of a damning report into the ambulance service finding multiple failures and poor decisions resulted in harm to patients and significant risk to staff, while also raising concerns patients had died from treatments.
New Zealand artist Phil Price, who was selected by Darwin Council to create the Cyclone Tracy 50th anniversary memorial sculpture, has described the concept behind his work as a “celebration of life” and that it was “not anything more than that”, adding it was impossible to really create a sculpture that represented Cyclone Tracy and suggested survivors who do not like it do not have the right attitude.
EXCLUSIVE: The damning review into St John Ambulance by the NT Health Department has uncovered a toxic culture in the organisation – in addition to failures leading to patient harm – in which management used lawyers to intimidate and silence staff from speaking out and purposely ignored genuine concerns raised about the organisation’s ongoing ability to function.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has decided not to lay charges against former Barkly Regional Council mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin for sitting on a child while another man abused him, in what he later claimed was a citizen’s arrest, NT Police said.
A man was killed in a single vehicle crash near Wadeye that also involved two other adults and a 10-year-old child, NT Police said.
Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has initiated defamation action against Cyclone Tracy survivor Antony Bullock, who is organising a protest against the council’s cyclone memorial sculpture, over a mini-book he has written examining the process to select the controversial work, with a lawyer demanding he not publish the book and threatening to monitor his social media comments to find more instances of alleged defamation.
The Finocchiaro Government has announced an extra $3.9 million in funding for Legal Aid NT this financial year, but an internal email sent to staff warned the agency will still have to find savings, including being more stringent in who was provided legal aid, while hoping the government will increase its base funding for next financial year.
