EXCLUSIVE: Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro maintained yesterday that she was not aware Acting Police Commissioner Martin Dole was on the same tainted hiring panel as Michael Murphy until Monday, but the NT Independent can reveal she was informed of the matter on Saturday, during a discussion with the NT Police Association concerning her appointment of Mr Dole to the top job and likely knew about it before then.
The latest revelation has raised further questions about Ms Finocchiaro’s integrity and her handling of the Murphy scandal, which saw her wait more than a week before removing him from his role after first being briefed about his misconduct on February 27, which she initially claimed was nothing more than a “learning tool” for other public servants.
Faced with intense media pressure in the days that followed the ICAC’s public statement, Ms Finocchiaro initially said she could not name Mr Murphy on advice from the ICAC and Solicitor General, before finally moving to terminate his contract on Saturday night – nine days after first becoming aware of the improper hiring process and two days after he outed himself as the unnamed subject of the ICAC’s Operation Apollo report.
Mr Dole, who was appointed Deputy Commissioner by Mr Murphy through another questionable hiring process last year that will now be subject to the inquiry into executive appointments, was appointed Acting Police Commissioner on Saturday night by Ms Finocchiaro, despite concerns raised that he was on the same hiring panel that cost Mr Murphy his job.
Mr Dole was promoted to Deputy Commissioner roughly six weeks after sitting on the hiring panel for Mr Murphy’s mate and now Assistant Commissioner Peter Kennon, in which the ICAC found Mr Dole “acted as a second referee”.
Ms Finocchiaro told the public via Mix FM on Monday that she was not aware of Mr Dole’s involvement in the process to hire Mr Kennon until Monday morning, after she appointed him Acting Commissioner.
“I’ve now been aware that he was on that panel, just this morning,” Ms Finocchiaro said at the time.
She made the same claim on ABC Radio the following day, when asked when she became aware Mr Dole was on the tainted panel.
“Yesterday morning, when I think, Nathan [Finn] said it on your show,” she replied.
But sources have told the NT Independent that NTPA president Nathan Finn voiced his concerns about Mr Dole’s involvement in the hiring panel and his appointment as Acting Commissioner during a discussion with the Chief Minister on Saturday concerning Mr Murphy being stood down.
Others were also well aware of Mr Dole’s role on the panel last week, including police, legal and political figures. Some of those figures told this masthead that Ms Finocchiaro would also have been made aware of Mr Dole’s involvement when she was briefed by the ICAC late last month.
When confronted about the conversation with the NTPA yesterday, Ms Finocchiaro maintained her position that she only learned of Mr Dole’s involvement on Monday.
She then asked who told her about it on Saturday.
“The NT Police Association president Nathan Finn,” the NT Independent responded.
“Incorrect,” Ms Finocchiaro said.
“You’re saying he didn’t tell you that on Saturday?”
“One hundred per cent,” she said, adding that she would not mislead Territorians.
The NT Independent stands by its assertion that Mr Finn raised his concerns in the Saturday meeting with her about Mr Dole.
“The NTPA won’t be discussing private conversations we have with the Chief Minister,” Mr Finn said in a statement last evening.
Ms Finocchiaro was also “made aware” that Mr Dole was on the Kennon hiring panel on Sunday afternoon, during a press conference, when NT News reporter Camden Smith asked her specifically about Mr Dole sitting on the panel.
Ms Finocchiaro claimed she was not “aware” who was on the panel at that time and that the ICAC found only that Mr Murphy acted improperly and he had been removed from his role.
However, according to ICAC delegate Patricia Kelly’s public statement on February 28, Mr Murphy mismanaged a conflict of interest by sitting on the panel and providing a reference for Mr Kennon – as well as providing him with a successful job application – while another panel member confirmed to be Mr Dole, “acted as a second referee”.
Mr Dole played down his role on the Kennon hiring panel this week, stating that the ICAC’s investigation made “some particular findings in relation to the commissioner and the failure to document a conflict of interest and that’s all I’m going to say about that selection process”.
“At the time, it was totally appropriate that I was on that panel,” he said on Monday, adding that he was “listed as a referee for more than one of the applicants”, but “did not provide a personal reference to any applicant”.
The ICAC found he did “act” as a second referee for Mr Kennon.
Mr Dole was appointed Deputy Police Commissioner in May 2024 through a questionable hiring process overseen by Mr Murphy six weeks after Mr Dole involved himself in the Kennon hiring panel, that involved Mr Murphy initially cancelling a hiring panel for the deputy role in late 2023, that Mr Dole did not apply for, and resurrecting it in early 2024 when Mr Dole was promoted.
Faced with intense public pressure and despite saying 48-hours earlier that she held no concerns about cronyism at the highest levels of the NT Police, Ms Finocchiaro yesterday announced an inquiry led by former Tasmanian Chief Justice Alan Blow to investigate all appointments above superintendent made by Mr Murphy since August 2023.
She stated all appointments, including Mr Dole and Mr Kennon, would remain in their roles while the inquiry is carried out.
Mr Dole earlier this week said he felt an inquiry into the executive appointments by Mr Murphy was “not necessary”.
In the Northern Territory, we have Australian Federal Police Officers who are based and work in the Northern Territory who are covered by the Fair Work Act (Cth) and their enterprise agreements are approved by and dealt with and are lodged in the Fair Work Commission.
In the Northern Territory, we have Northern Territory Police Officers who are based and work in the Northern Territory who are not covered by the Fair Work Act (Cth) and their Northern Territory Police Force (NTPF) Consent Agreement 2022 is not lodged in the Fair Work Commission but is lodged in the Northern Territory Police Arbitral Tribunal.
Is it not time to ensure that all Police Officers in the Northern Territory, be they Australian Federal Police Officers and or Northern Territory Police Officers, are covered by the Fair Work Act (Cth) and that their enterprise agreements are approved by and dealt with and are lodged in the Fair Work Commission?
Is it not time that our Northern Territory Parliament abolishes the Northern Territory Police Arbitral Tribunal so that Northern Territory Police Officers employment matters can be dealt with by the Fair Work Commission?
At least we now have an inquiry with TOR which will cover whether, as a senior executive and co-panel member, Mr Dole should also have recognised the extent of Murphy’s conflict of interest but didn’t, or did recognise it but did not act sufficiently to ensure it was appropriately managed.
As for the CM, next week’s Parliamentary sitting is shaping up to be very interesting and as she would say, there is time between now and then for plenty more water to go under the bridge.
And yes, the next question is whether Dole should continue as acting Commissioner while the Blow inquiry takes place. It’s hard to see how he can. The question is who would you put in charge?
I suspect, I don’t know, just suspect, that ALL big bureaucracies have cronyism at the top level. It’s simply human nature.
You don’t have to suspect. It has always been like this, and it must stay that way. The boss needs to pick his own staff, and the same goes for everyone else all the way down the chain, as it has always been in the NT public service or private.
Boof… Legally, ethically, and morally, and in terms of securing the very best candidate for any public service position; which is also a requirement of Treasury Regulations governing all expenditure of tax-payer’s money; the single criterion of objective and transparent meritocracy must identify the best candidate.
Your assertion that cronyism must regulate employment is the very first time in my life I have witnessed a person openly advocate corruption. I have worked in the Commonwealth and NT Government public services; as an employee for private businesses; and operated my own successful private enterprise and I can only conclude that the NT, along with wider Australia, has sunk to a fatal new low.
Tony, our household respects your previous ones and current comment but we feel you have missed the elephant in the room. Boof and their ilk love what are colloquially known as ‘Captain’s Picks’ because those people in 99% of the time are sharing in the benefits of those particular kinds of corrupt practices. We bet you’ll never hear of someone who lost out to one, supporting them. It’s easy to support something, no matter how repugnant it may be, if you and your mates are directly benefitting from it. See Apartheid South Africa for how that plays out if unchecked.
Both 2 big parties openly advocate corruption in NT Government ranks. They’ve been doing it for years and years and years, going back for much longer than the inception of this fine website. Boof is but a small twig on a very big tree with a well established root system. Pardon the noun/verb pun on: root system.
Here’s the elephant: both big parties openly advocate corruption by first fighting to not set up an ICAC, then when public disquiet got too much they then underfunded it, staffed it full of people who either came straight from NT Gov’t offices like the CM’s or has close ties to people in NT Gov’t and then employed Commissioners who were not going to do anything. After that worked a treat they then asked one career NT public servant called Greg Shanahan from the CM’s office to do a secret review away from the public gaze enabling the covering up of naming people who are found to be corrupt, amongst other things he recommended to support the protection of guilty. And if that wasn’t enough of a F**K YOU to the public and everyone else, both 2 big parties then passed all his recommendations into law.
But wait, there was one final clue as to whether anyone else but Boof has openly advocated corruption in NT Government. Greg Shanahan was appointed, by Lia, to the job of ICAC Commissioner. And everyone in the ALP and CLP all clapped in unison.
It was designed to fail from the outset. The sooner people get that into their heads, the better. The problem is not the pathetic excuse for a functioning ICAC, nor is it the fact that corruption is rife in NT Gov’t and beyond.
The problem is, none of the current political parties have any real desire outside of a few media soundbites, to change it. They love the status quo. They could change legislation very easily, no persuading Independents because there is not enough of them and won’t be for years to come, no having to do cross bench deals with Labor (because Labor supports them anyway whatever they do). But they don’t, why? They love the status quo. The more dysfunctional the better = more private enterprise to run Government services = more money/favours for them and their mates. And so the cycle continues.
Didn’t Lia Finnochiaro & NTG ALP CM Michael Gunner, as part of th establishment, do a deal to help Lias’s husband Darwin Waterfront Corporation (DWC) General Manager Sam Burke get an AustralAsia Railway Board member position along with his mate CEO Alastair Shields? Remember Andrew Kirkman is also part of the establishment controlling Darwin based HR positions, he bullies woman with impunity?
NTG CLP & ALP are the same bird with different wings. As such the fight is now a spiritual war between right v wrong, honesty v lies, good v evil. Are there some CLP members working to return ALP Luke Gosling & Marion Scrymgour into power to keep the status quo? Asking for a friend.
i hear there is,!
I think they are sick of the Nepotism….i mean of all the people the CLP could have picked for the forthcoming federal election, they had to pick up a washed up CLP Ministers daughter?
Like was there no one else?
I hear some CLP will be voting for Mr Gosling or the Independent candidate so the CLP get the message!
Anyone notice that the slim commissioners were the best ?
Yeah! They should stick to hiring the Skinnies!!!
eg
Selection Criteria
(1) Must weight less than 100kgs.
(2) Can keep pants on
(3) Not associate with Travel Agents
(4) *Wont hire all blonds in the NAB corporate office (Anyone remember that Skinny Chief?)
One must have integrity for it to be called in to question!
Good morning Jane Davies,
We are not alone in concern. Your comment with clear concise content is the war cry summoning the masses!
I truly believe, when this package breaks at its seams the outflow of mess at its lesser effect will be the greatest exposure of dysfunction, corruption seen in any governance. The greater issue, that troubles myself, is that Territorians are left grovelling in the knowledge they have been duped with misrepresentation for many years.
What is the connection!
Blind Freddy may suggest that Lia Finnochiaro had all the opportunity to apportion corruptive issues to the previous Labor party! All the wrongs could righteously been addressed driving a brighter future for Territorians in both the public and private sector!
Lia has had 6 months and her failings and lack of proactive action has not afforded her name to be applauded in the hearts and minds of Territorians!
I personally find it indeed a poor show, the Territory , with Labor’s huge failings presented a WIN WIN opportunity with only the smallest proactive effort, instead it appears the dunny brush may very well need replacing, given the scrubbing required for a better Territory vision!
Andrew Kirkman should have been terminated and it is a MUST DO that the final costs of his “ lack off” and “ inability” is mentioned and disclosed in the Unicameral NT Parliament for all Australians to witness!
I would also like to hear how much money Lia and Sam have received as public officers including Sam’s board derived remuneration. We never have heard discussion on Lia”s travel expenses prior too and including her CM role-But the CM does have ICAC report to her- lm right with that yes!
On a personal note- l truly believe that the greatest achievement of one’s efforts in a role of representation, comes after one’s exit. A short and powerful moment l share as example!
As a single father of two, l use to spend the start of the preschool day playing games with the kids, along with other mums! I asked the kids who is our Prime minister- surprisingly the kids said John or Mr Howard!! What and why mention this you the reader may ask!
WELL to me, this was an indicator that the then Prime minister’s name was spoken of favourably within the homes of these kids- with that the kids recalled him as a nice , good person and mum and dad liked him!
Had the kids heard their parents speak harshly of a person, the kids would not recall a bad person!
Lia Finnochiaro, with such crucial time spent in failure will not be recalled by kids or others as favourable! Let’s give her the time to do what she can as far as dancing and baking Is concerned and relieve her of a role intended for grown ups with hearts, soles and compliance.