The Finocchiaro Government has spent $8.1 million converting part of Holtze Prison into a standalone women’s section, but has still not disclosed the overall cost of its five-year prison master plan, as inmate numbers continue to rise to just 50 prisoners below the capacity the government said it would be able to house by 2028.
Attendance rates at Northern Territory schools in 2025 dropped by half a per cent on 2024 despite the introduction of truancy officers in November of that year. Education Minister Jo Hersey said today she was doubling down on her government’s plan to get kids to school and hold parents accountable for non-attendance, but did not directly reference the marginal decline.
An Alice Springs man who tried to complain about how the Health and Community Services Complaints Commission handled his health treatment complaint discovered the review committee meant to scrutinise the commission no longer existed, having been left dormant after Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby failed to appoint members, while she claimed it would be premature to do so ahead of the establishment of a proposed new integrity body.
The head of ambulance services at the troubled St John Ambulance NT, Andrew Thomas, has been appointed as the new executive director of Bushfires NT, while the ambulance contractor has said it has brought in former Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw to help find its next chief executive officer.
Police Commissioner Martin Dole told the former head of public prosecutions that Zach Rolfe should be charged with murder over the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker, but did not have a conflict of interest despite his childhood relationship with the victim’s family, a new ICAC report has found, which also concluded that police management’s failure to record major decisions in the case was “unfortunate” and “surprising” but did not amount to improper conduct.
Darwin Council will not say if it spent the $126,500 allocated for the annual city Christmas display, that this year involves failing lights, decorations from Christmases long, long ago, and the old Smith Street Christmas tree that appears was only lit for one night.
A team of scientists say the NT Government is being “misleading, inaccurate and potentially defamatory” by claiming their study that found a major aquifer was drying at an accelerated pace did not include enough years of data, a criticism that follows the government itself in 2022 inexplicably doubling the estimated annual re-filling rate provided for an aquifer by appearing to cut the data period in half.
Public servants have voted to accept the Finocchiaro CLP Government’s latest pay offer, ending drawn out negotiations over the 2025-2029 enterprise bargaining agreement.
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.
