Darwin Council should open the Cyclone Tracy 50th anniversary memorial sculpture unveiling to the general public and listen to the public’s criticism of the controversial design, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has said, while the Prime Minister, federal Infrastructure Minister, and federal Member for Solomon will not comment on the exclusion of Cyclone Tracy survivors from the event, or the Mayor’s latest denial that it is not a memorial for one of Australia’s most destructive natural disasters.

Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has once again publicly denied the Cyclone Tracy 50th anniversary monument – which the Federal Government provided $600,000 to create – is actually a monument or a memorial for one of Australia’s worst natural disasters, adding that a secret VIP event the council organised to unveil it was not actually an “event”, after facing intense public outrage.

Former Northern Land Council chief executive officers Joe Martin-Jard and Marion Scrymgour have both said they have not been approached by the National Anti-Corruption Commission about an investigation it is conducting into the land council, after raids on its Darwin offices last month and amid questions on Friday at Senate Estimates hearings.

The interim chief executive officer of the Anindilyakwa Land Council has said it is his “understanding” that the former CEO Mark Hewitt is under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Basketball Australia senior executives have visited Darwin to assess the financial situation of the sport and how to manage it in the future, following the exposure of a financial crisis, the head of the peak body has said, and amid reports the Darwin Salties will not return next year.

Cyclone Tracy survivors will be excluded from a secret VIP-only unveiling ceremony for the controversial taxpayer-funded Cyclone Tracy 50th anniversary memorial sculpture, an event driven by Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis, with some survivors calling for dignitaries to boycott it.

The “extra” $1 million Legal Aid NT was provided by the Finocchiaro Government will not stop it cutting criminal legal services as planned, the group has indicated, while producing a handbook explaining to people representing themselves how to ask a judge to adjourn their matter.

An audit of the finances of the Darwin Salties, the Darwin Basketball Association, and Basketball Northern Territory is being conducted by KPMG under the direction of Basketball Australia with input from the Northern Territory Government, following an ongoing financial crisis in the sport, with a source telling the NT Independent the organisations lost about $1.6 million combined over the last two years.

The Finocchiaro Government will not say if it will spend close to $20 million to upgrade the Darwin Convention Centre, which was part of a plan by the previous government to get an NBL team for the city, and will also not say if the government will give the troubled Darwin Salties more taxpayer money to allow them to continue.

The Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education used unreliable student records to claim government funding and failed to comply with Australian accounting standards, a new Auditor-General’s report has found, which follows other serious operational and financial problems at the institute that led the Auditor General being unable to sign off on its finances for two years.