The Mandorah ferry terminal and associated works will open to the public later this month with a total build cost of $85 million, the Finocchiaro Government has said, which is $39 million more than estimated in 2017, and comes more than six years after the former Labor government declared it a priority project.
A proposed cotton farming project on the WA/NT border will be the first major land clearing application in the Territory to be considered by the Federal Government under national environment laws, while the owners of Claravale Station have suspended their massive land clearing plans, the Environment Centre NT said.
The death of a 59-year-old male corrections inmate at Royal Darwin Hospital on Sunday is being investigated as a death in custody, but the NT Independent understands it is not being treated as suspicious.
The NT Government will distribute $231 million in federal grants over the next four years to homelessness frontline and support services across the NT, which comes as Indigenous groups have continued their calls for the Federal Government to withhold money from the NT Government over its refusal to meet with Aboriginal groups to discuss crime solutions and failing to meet KPIs on Closing the Gap objectives.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government has passed changes to the Youth Justice Act in Parliament on urgency Thursday night, that will see the use of spit hoods on children reinstated, the principle of detention as a last resort removed, increased powers for youth justice officers to use force on youth inmates and the reintroduction of the use of restraint devices and dogs, essentially rolling back the changes made in response to the royal commission into youth detention in 2017.
On the anniversary of former police commissioner Michael Murphy’s apology to Aboriginal people, it is timely to reflect on the two-tiered system that has endured in Australia since the first fleeters set foot on the east coast in 1788, writes Dr Robyn Smith.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s comments in Parliament that 45 paediatricians who voiced concerns about the treatment of children in youth detention should stop “wasting” her time and go back to “looking after sick children” have been condemned by the Australian Medical Association NT.
A 32-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly indecently assaulting a female who was walking through the Palmerston golf course grounds shortly after 7am this morning, NT Police said, with the man later throwing a bottle at officers who were searching for him.
A coordinated extensive search for missing 26-year-old Alice Springs man Gach is continuing west of the town ahead of forecasted sub-zero temperatures, three days after he vanished, with more than 50 personnel from police units, emergency services and Parks and Wildlife combing through 500 square kilometres of “challenging terrain”.
The Northern Territory recorded growth in business investment and construction activity over last year, according to the latest CommSec State of the States report, with other economic indicators, such as population growth also showing modest improvements.
Proposed legislation that will change the Anti-Discrimination Act is being heralded by the CLP and religious groups as a major win, while others have criticised the government for the changes that they say weakens protections and waters down reforms brought in three years ago.
A female police officer was sent to hospital after an altercation with five females in Yarrawonga yesterday afternoon, in an incident that saw the “aggressive” females allegedly surrounding the officers at one point, with pepper spray deployed and damage to a police vehicle, the NT Police said.
