Three Aboriginal community police officers have filed a class action in the Federal Court against the Northern Territory Government alleging they were subjected to systemic racial discrimination and racial vilification while serving in the Northern Territory Police.
The NT Environment Department reversed its initial assessment that land clearing at Claravale Station could significantly impact a threatened species, later finding the proposal was unlikely to have a significant impact because of newly proposed buffer zones, despite the property owner refusing to carry out surveys the department said were needed, documents released under FOI laws show.
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.
Trade and Business Minister Robyn Cahill’s claim that the Earth’s poles can flip during periods of heavy rainfall in the Northern Territory and that the water causes the Earth’s axis to shift is incorrect and shows she has a “very poor and terrible understanding” of how hydrology works, a leading expert in satellite hydrology says.
ANALYSIS: The recent demotion of Assistant Commissioner Janelle Tonkin suggests superficially a willingness to enforce discipline, although what she is alleged to have done remains a mystery – whatever the cause of Tonkin’s fall, this rare act of accountability stands in stark contrast to so many others in recent years who have acted with impunity.
The Finocchiaro Government’s “devastating” decision to close the YiSSA short-stay accommodation facility in Darwin within 90 days will leave almost 400 vulnerable Territorians without accommodation, the organisation running the facility says, while Children and Families Minister Robyn Cahill said the government could not justify the cost of renewing the lease and promised no one would be left without a bed, but is yet to develop a plan for housing people.
The head of the unit responsible for implementing the failed $335 million Acacia IT project has been moved to a specially created $250,000-a-year job by her former boss in the Department of Treasury and Finance, despite leading the unit that was recently subject of an internal investigation prompted by allegations of a toxic workplace culture that allegedly led to the death of worker Shaun Joyce, sources have told the NT Independent.
Environment Minister Josh Burgoyne will not say if the government has settled with Claravale Farm’s owners to drop a Federal Court challenge over a property-sale caveat, which follows revelations the minister falsely claimed 15 months ago that a revegetation deal to avoid illegal clearing prosecution was already signed by the company, when it was only finalised last month.
Labor Opposition Leader Selena Uibo has not committed to taking any action against Labor MLA Manuel Brown over his repeated speeding offences while admitting she is not confident he won’t do it again and has refused to answer whether the member for Arafura’s 14-year-old son drove his private vehicle.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro says she wants to allow 16-year-olds to carry OC spray and let people purchase it on behalf of others when her government legislates to make the public access trial permanent later this year, a move an independent MLA said should be backed by evidence and questioned whether teenagers could make split-second decisions about when its use was lawful.
Corporate and Digital Development Minister Josh Burgoyne avoided answering questions about his department at Estimates, including about the failed Acacia IT project and the internal investigation into the suicide death of an employee, by choosing to make a speech for the full allocated time rather than open himself and the chief executive to public examination.
