The Finocchiaro Government has formed a committee to oversee the buy-back of commercial barramundi fishing licences, with the industry welcoming the independent body but calling for alternative fishing methods so locally caught wild barramundi can continue to be sold in restaurants.
NT Business and Asian Relations Minister Robyn Cahill will lead a delegation to Vietnam this week with representatives from numerous local education providers including CDU, Alana Kaye College and Haileybury Rendall School, which she said will “strengthen ties” with the one-party authoritarian state and comes the same day the Vietnamese president was in Canberra to strengthen economic ties with the Commonwealth.
Alice Springs Town Council has launched the ‘myTodd Mall’ buy-local voucher program to support small businesses and attract customers amid ongoing construction disruptions that will see customers earn vouchers depending on how much they spend at participating businesses.
Claravale Station owners were allegedly told by Environment Department staff that the NT Environment Protection Agency did not want to see land clearing applications for assessment and were advised to avoid triggering a referral to the supposedly independent watchdog, according to documents obtained under freedom of information laws, but the department has denied its staff provided that advice and said they instead gave instructions about how to adhere to the legislation.
Northern Territory data centres will have to use renewable energy as their primary source of power or will not proceed, Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Wednesday, adding natural gas will only be used as a backup and that he will invoke all Federal Government powers available to enforce the new rules.
Japanese gas company Inpex has been charged by the NT Environmental Protection Authority over alleged under-reporting of emissions from its Ichthys LNG facility in Darwin, which an independent review found had been “systematically underestimated”.
Native title holders have had a victory in the High Court against the NT Government’s decision to grant Singleton Station a massive water licence that would allow 40,000 megalitres a year to be drawn for an intensive horticulture business, with the court ruling today that the water licence had not been lawfully granted.
The NT Environment Department reversed its initial assessment that land clearing at Claravale Station could significantly impact a threatened species, later finding the proposal was unlikely to have a significant impact because of newly proposed buffer zones, despite the property owner refusing to carry out surveys the department said were needed, documents released under FOI laws show.
A motion before Darwin Council calling on the NT Government to introduce a new tax on Territory Day fireworks has the support of the Mayor and at least one councillor who want to use the additional revenue to cover clean-up costs the day after cracker night, but the Chief Minister is not sold on the idea.
An estimated 100 Charles Darwin University students in the electrotechnology program have not been properly trained, Education and Training Minister Jo Hersey revealed in Parliament Thursday afternoon, which follows CDU’s TAFE carpentry training scandal earlier this year that saw hundreds forced to redo their qualifications.
Beetaloo Digital, a subsidiary of Beetaloo Energy, has been given a commitment by the NT Government for 185 hectares of land at Weddell to develop a claimed $40 billion, two gigawatt AI data centre and energy mega-campus, which critics say is the latest glimpse of the Territory’s “dystopian future”, while the government has refused to explain if it has a plan for managing data centre development.
A forklift incident at the Katherine Woolworths that resulted in serious injuries to a motorcycle rider has led NT WorkSafe to charge the supermarket giant with various work health breaches that could see it hit with a maximum penalty of $4.5 million.
