Barkly councillors have refused to comment on potential conflicts of interest in suppressing a legal report into allegations of bullying, harassment and mismanagement at Barkly Regional Council, which former employees who were part of the investigation say will show substantial governance failures.
Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Newell is still training detectives, and is the Drug and Organised Crime Squad boss, despite being investigated by Victoria Police over allegations of perverting the course of justice in the Constable Zach Rolfe murder investigation, a highly-placed source has told the NT Independent.
Former Barkly Regional Council member Noel Hays, who quit council because of its dysfunction late last year, has called on Local Government Minister Chanston Paech to sack the council, following the latest controversy of a video showing the Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin holding down a child while another man threatened to kill him.
Five female youths assaulted a woman in Katherine Central Shopping Centre, then stole her phone, NT Police said.
EXCLUSIVE: The family of the boy Barkly Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin was videoed pinning to the ground while another man threatened to kill him have refuted the Mayor’s claims he undertook restorative justice with them and are “angry” about other “lies” he has told the public about the child and the family, the NT Independent can reveal.
A motorbike rider has been killed in a crash at Howard Springs, NT Police has said.
A special meeting of the Barkly Regional Council organised to offer Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin a chance to explain himself over a video depicting him sitting on a child while another man yelled at the boy, threatened to kill him, and forced his head down with a boot, has been cancelled due to “legal advice”.
EXCLUSIVE: National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds has called for a thorough investigation into a “distressing” video showing Barkly Regional Council Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin sitting on an Indigenous child while another man threatens to kill him, which comes as a second video of the incident has emerged.
An engine room fire on cattle export ship the Brahman Express has led to authorities directing the vessel back to Darwin Port, authorities have said.
EXCLUSIVE: A video of Barkly Regional Council Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin sitting on an Indigenous child while another man puts his booted foot on the child’s head while threatening to kill him has been reported to NT Police, the NT Independent can reveal. WATCH THE VIDEO
The Tennant Creek and District Times’ owner, editor and reporter Tash Adams’ role as the Barkly Regional Council media advisor and executive assistant to the Mayor and chief executive officer has been described as “ethically untenable” by a journalism ethics academic.
Both the federal and Territory governments will not say if they were owed money by the failed Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation which was placed in administration in early August, after having mining royalty funding cut by traditional owners, but which had kept providing services using other money.
