St John Ambulance NT will be given the non-emergency patient transport contract by the Finocchiaro Government without it going to tender, the ambulance operator has said, which follows its June claim it was in direct negotiation with the government over the emergency road transport contract despite revelations that the Major Crime Squad investigated the death of one of its patients and an alleged cover-up by management earlier this year.
Darwin Basketball Association members have voted for the association to be dissolved, and for Basketball NT to take over running the Darwin basketball competitions, Basketball Australia has said, which follows an independent report showing its proposed income streams could breach the sport’s National Integrity Framework while it was also being investigated by the peak body’s integrity unit.
The deaths of three Department of Corporate and Digital Development employees, including the suicide of Shaun Joyce that all occurred within a 12-month period, are currently under investigation by the Territory’s workplace regulator because of the alleged “psychosocial hazards” that may have contributed to the deaths, NT WorkSafe said.
The troubled Darwin Basketball Association’s financial situation worsened this year, with proposed income streams possibly breaching the sport’s national integrity rules, Basketball Australia has said, leaving the NT basketball fraternity to now vote on whether to dissolve the association.
Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman’s contract has been renewed for another five years, but the university council will not say on what basis the decision was made, while the announcement was made two days before Mr Bowman revealed he had hired a friend and her wedding singer husband to run the university’s London campus without publicly advertising the roles.
The terms of reference for an internal government investigation into the death of Acacia health IT system developer Shaun Joyce have been kept secret by the government, with the Department of Corporate and Digital Development refusing to say whether it is examining the issue of identified departmental bullying more broadly or looking into further possible suicides connected to the project.
A person accused of a crime in the Northern Territory will no longer be able to access legal aid and those on bail facing criminal offences, including children as young as 10, will also no longer be covered, part of “drastic action” taken by Legal Aid NT director Catherine Voumard to save money outlined in a letter to lawyers.
The Department of Business says it is looking for “an appropriate course of action” to deal with the Darwin Basketball Association’s ongoing governance and financial failures, while the association incorrectly told members that media were forbidden under its constitution to attend its recent annual general meeting, where it produced financial statements showing its auditors once again raising questions over the group’s solvency.
Auditors have warned the Darwin Basketball Association is at risk of going under for the third year in a row, this time due to a more than $600,000 cash shortfall for the year, with the association blaming Basketball NT for its situation but claiming it is confident in its solvency partly based on the $9,000 it pulled in from a weekly bingo night at the Casuarina Club, a figure the auditors have also called into question.
Test results from early 2024 show barriers underneath the military fuel tanks at East Arm to prevent leaks were ineffective, the Environment Centre NT has said, which was confirmed by the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment in a letter sent three weeks after Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne approved the tanks for use and they began to be filled with jet fuel.
A Darwin hostel manager has questioned whether the Finocchiaro Government would care more about her if she had been killed during a violent bashing allegedly at the hands of a man who was described as “not safe to be released into the general community”, who was booked into her hostel by a government contractor without disclosing his violent history, adding the government was “causing crime” by neglecting its responsibilities.
EXCLUSIVE: The manager of a Darwin hostel says she is lucky to be alive after being repeatedly kicked in the head by a man who was previously described by a psychiatrist as “not safe to be released into the general community”, but who she said was booked into her accommodation by a government contractor through the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency without disclosing his long history of violence.
