The Territory’s gross state product decreased by 5.3 per cent in the last financial year, the weakest result for all states and territories, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show, while an academic said he thought the Fyles Government realised the “future was grim” unless it reduced the public service or gas fracking began in the Beetaloo basin.
Coroner Elisabeth Armitage has ruled that she will not recuse herself from presiding over the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker saying that she was not persuaded a fair-minded lay person would think she was not impartial.
An Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation has found a helicopter owned by crocodile wrangler Matt Wright “probably” crashed because it ran out of fuel mid-air, with maintenance non-compliance also increasing risk levels for much of the company’s flying, and engine defects likely affecting the chopper’s fuel consumption.
Police Minister Brent Potter and Police Commissioner Michael Murphy have contradicted themselves in interviews about how they will provide a pledged 50 extra police in Alice Springs, while the union representing police said they believed officers would have to be brought in from remote communities, recently estimating the Territory was about 200 officers short.
A man who was involved in attempted axe attacks on shoppers is on the run, while a police officer suffered a serious puncture wound on her arm after attempting to arrest him and another man involved in the violent shopping centre incident, NT Police said.
Police Commissioner Michael Murphy denied 57 days of sick leave to a police officer who served for 40 years in the NT, and who now has a “difficult” health prognosis relying on the hope of a “medical discovery”, without reason or justification, Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan has said.
A Federal Court judge has halted Santos’ work on the southern part of its Barossa gas pipeline that runs within 7km of the Tiwi Islands until potentially mid-January, when a ruling is made on an application by some residents over a new environmental plan for the project, while the peak petroleum body says the decision has damaged the economic and energy security of Australia and its international partners.
The Fyles Government has released its water allocation plan for the Georgina and Wiso basins, which was a requirement to permit fracking in the Beetaloo basin, but the government has manipulated the aquifer re-fill data produced by a hydrologist it employed, to only include the last 50 years, which is skewed by an extremely large recharge caused by Cyclone Tracy.
A 12-year-old boy and two teenage boys have been charged over an aggravated robbery at a service station in Ludmilla on Sunday, where one of the boys allegedly assaulted a male employee with a screwdriver, causing a minor injury, NT Police has said.
The Fyles Government’s “summer plan” to reduce crime in Central Australia is “the definition of madness” for continuing to do the same things, Alice Springs independent MLA Robyn Lambley has said, while the government is promising an “additional” 50 police officers along with a set of initiatives believed to already be in effect.
The Fyles Government has announced a new three-year deal with Gold Coast and Melbourne to play three AFL games a year in the Territory, but has refused to say how much Territorians are paying the clubs, while the Tasmanian government has revealed it will pay Hawthorn nearly $1.7 million per game in Launceston from next year.
A group of youths stole car keys from the Alice Springs Local Court building and used them to steal a car which police had described as being driven dangerously around town this week, while at least one occupant threw rocks at police and attempted to ram a police car, sources have told the NT Independent.
