The Nightcliff Seabreeze Festival will not go ahead in 2027, with organisers citing rising costs, increasing volunteer workloads and indifference from the NT Government as major issues, but said they hope to continue it as a biennial event, which could see it return in 2028.
The CLP Government has rejected a motion in Parliament calling for a moratorium on data centres until a public inquiry can investigate their impact, with a Labor MLA warning the CLP is not listening to Territorians at their own peril, specifically in the rural area where the CLP is contradicting its “rural lifestyle” rhetoric by backing a major proposed data centre without consulting residents about its impacts.
The on-again, off-again relationship between Nine Darwin’s news bulletin and Territorians is back on again, with current owner WIN Network announcing the return of a local 30-minute news bulletin in Darwin.
The Tiger Brennan Drive and Berrimah Road overpass has been officially renamed the Luke Bowen Bridge, honouring the late agricultural leader on Monday, who professionals and loved ones remembered as a man who built bridges across business and the wider Territory.
UPDATED: NT Government departments including hospitals, police, courts and schools were impacted by a system-wide network failure resulting in a lack of phone and internet services for more than 12 hours Thursday, with government officials unable to get the system functioning again until close to 4pm.
High-profile federal politicians and community health groups have backed independent NT MLA Justine Davis’ move to introduce reforms to the Territory’s gambling regulations, that she says currently put industry profits over people through an NT-based regulator with weak conflict of interest controls and lax regulations that cause harm across the country.
Darwin Lord Mayor Peter Styles says council has an “obligation” to private Darwin businesses to “open doors for them” in China, which is why it’s necessary for him, council chief executive Simone Saunders and two other staffers to charge ratepayers an undisclosed amount for a trade mission to Guangzhou in December that he also confusingly said on Tuesday is “not necessarily [about] trade”. Potential conflicts of interest with Mr Styles’ personal business interests, which were raised last week, have still not been addressed.
Trade and Business Minister Robyn Cahill, who pitched the Northern Territory as the “data centre capital of the globe”, was in Texas last month on a trade mission when the state’s Republican Governor ordered a sudden moratorium on data centres, citing the need to investigate environmental impacts and ordering no further government incentives because “Texans must come first”, but Ms Cahill’s office has refused to say what she learned on the taxpayer-funded trip.
The Northern Territory ranks last in household energy performance policy on the Energy Efficiency Council’s inaugural national scorecard, finding the jurisdiction had no government-provided consumer information or household energy efficiency incentive program, and new homes retain a 5-star minimum, rather than the National Construction Code’s 7-star minimum requirement.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service has been awarded a 10-year, $625 million contract to provide aeromedical retrieval and inter-hospital transfer services in the Top End, Big Rivers, and East Arnhem regions, but the government has refused to explain why the contract was awarded so late and how much taxpayers will pay Careflight while it continues the service until next July.
Self-described “international trade and development consultant” Peter Styles will lead a nine-day, ratepayer-funded international trade delegation to China and Vietnam later this year in his role as Darwin Lord Mayor, which he says will strengthen international partnerships, promote Darwin as a globally-connected tropical capital, and create opportunities for strategic collaboration across Asia, but council will not say how much the trip is expected to cost.
The Limmen Bight Marine Park has been extended by 185sq kms, an increase of 20 per cent, which the government says will help support the world’s largest dugong population while protecting marine habitats and promoting sustainable tourism.
