Anindilyakwa Land Council chief executive Mark Hewitt drove the independent reviewer employed by the federal government to investigate the land council around Groote Eylandt during the investigation, the itinerary for the trip shows, while traditional owners claim Mr Hewitt was also present while board members gave evidence to the investigator.
Aboriginal Investments NT began advertising for a new chief executive a week after its five-year strategic investment plan was released, which rolled the majority of $180 million in Aboriginal Benefits Accounts money to be given out as small business and community initiative grants over three years, into a new fund which appears largely focused on investment opportunities.
The Territory Road Policing Division boss Superintendent Daniel Shean allegedly intervened to block his son being investigated and possibly charged for allegedly drink driving, multiple sources have told the NT Independent, while the now former officer has denied the allegations.
Mark Hewitt’s conflict of interest in being both the chief executive officer of the Anindilyakwa Land Council and Winchelsea Mining was “unlikely” to be effectively managed, a government commissioned report found, but it stated the board was considering paying him to act as a mining consultant despite allegations against him having been reported to the National Anti-Corruption Commission by the Federal Government.
A man, who was found asleep beside a pool of blood in Malak, has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a woman in the ankle, and for another alleged domestic violence attack on the woman overnight, NT Police said.
Federal Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy will not approve the Anindilyakwa Land Council’s budget for this financial year, until the council has demonstrated to the National Indigenous Australians Agency that it can prioritise and implement the recommendations of an “independent” review which was ordered after a damning government audit early last year.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has backed away from holding a parliamentary inquiry into what she called a “crisis in police”, despite calling for one seven times while in opposition, and criticising the previous Labor government’s “deliberately constrained” and “behind-closed-doors review” of police.
A female pedestrian was killed after being hit by a car on the Stuart Highway near Knuckey Lagoon, NT Police said.
The mood of the NT electorate seems slightly sombre, and the most important answer lies in not who will win but how do we fix the system to better serve the Territory?
The Senate inquiry into the Federal Government’s $1.5 billion planned “equity investment” in the Middle Arm industrial precinct has failed to reach a unanimous agreement, with the Greens and two independents calling for an investigation into the secret involvement of gas lobbyists Andrew Liveris, Paul Henderson, Lidija Ivanovski, and Gerard Richardson in the investment decision, that has never been assessed by Infrastructure Australia.
The Lawler Government rejected the offer of free advice and products to improve the growth of the vines on the Cavanagh Street shade structure from an Australian company that worked on the world famous Gardens by the Bay in Singapore because it was afraid of attracting more public criticism, government emails obtained by the NT Independent show.
The former head of the Pastoral Land Board says growing commercial cotton on pastoral lease land without a special permit does not fall within the definition of “pastoral purposes” under the law, while the Lawler Government’s defence of the action removes the specific wording contained under the Act, which states anything grown on the land must be “essential to” and “inseparable from” the business of cattle grazing.
