Two Northern Territory Government departments have refused to explain the contradictions contained in an internal government report into a breach of fracking legislation by Empire Energy – now called Beetaloo Energy Australia – which involved one department sending a letter to “encourage behaviour change” after considering prosecution of the matter, while the other considered the company had done nothing wrong but still took action “to ensure it does not happen again”.
A 4WD owned by a member of the public allegedly rammed into the side of a stolen ute with children inside, including a 16-year-old driver, in an attempt to stop it after a two-hour dangerous driving rampage that included a campdraft camp in Tennant Creek where it almost ran over three small children, sources have told the NT Independent, while NT Police has provided an account of how the stolen ute was stopped that does not match the photographs of the damaged vehicles.
Facebook posts showing Public Employment Minister Jo Hersey attending union protest rallies against the previous Labor government’s public service pay freeze have contradicted her claims the union failed to fight against the 2022 pay freeze, but the Minister is now criticising unions for donating to Labor’s 2024 election campaign, which all comes amid a bitter battle over a new contract for public servants.
Three men have been charged for allegedly stealing up to 400 head of cattle from a station in central Australia in August, NT Police said.
Voluntary assisted dying legislation should be adopted in the Northern Territory, a new report by the government’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee has found, but it comes with 86 recommendations including instructions on how to draft the legislation, while the CLP Government has given no indication of when it will be introduced to Parliament.
An internal government report into a fracking legislation breach by Empire Energy – now called Beetaloo Energy Australia – shows that while the NT Government first recommended prosecuting the company because a fine was considered an insufficient deterrent, it later decided to send a letter to “encourage behaviour change” instead.
Police officers ended an estimated 40-second pursuit of a suspicious ute in Darwin city last week for “safety reasons” four to five seconds before it ran through a red light and hit a taxi, injuring passengers in the car, NT Police said.
Disgraced former NT police commissioner Michael Murphy has been appointed deputy chief executive of the Royal Flying Doctor Service SA/NT, with the organisation praising his “principled leadership” and “strong commitment to public trust”, despite a corruption watchdog report earlier this year finding he was “incompetent” and “negligent” and created a substantial detriment to the public interest by hiring a mate as assistant commissioner.
A brief of evidence into the death of Aboriginal man Kumanjayi White at the hands of Alice Springs police has been provided to the Director of Public Prosecutions to determine if charges should be laid, Police Commissioner Martin Dole has said, while police refused to say how Mr White died despite the autopsy report now completed.
The NT Environment Protection Authority has renewed the Darwin Liquified Natural Gas plant’s licence for another five years with new conditions, but appears to be permitting Santos to decide how much a leaking storage tank can continue to leak, a decision the Environment Centre NT said was providing a license to pollute while showing the regulator would not enforce consequences for “super emitters”.
Kon Vatskalis’s eight-year reign as Darwin Lord Mayor ended this week in a third-place finish, while his legacy will live on in controversy, defined by the selection of the kinetic sculpture called ‘Coriolis’ as a Cyclone Tracy memorial that he later claimed was not a memorial, leading to a tangled story involving political cover-ups and ratepayer-funded threats of legal action against members of the public for trying to find answers.
A 13-year-old boy has been arrested after two vehicles were stolen in Alice Springs overnight, the NT Police said.
