Territory Labor MLA Mark Turner has labelled the installation of a Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet marketing manager, who gives strategic advice on the “Territory master brand”, to oversee what crime is reported to the public by the NT Police as “Orwellian” and called for “courage” to end the political interference.

On June 22, the NT Independent reported that sources confirmed Sita Bacher had been installed in the extraordinary and unadvertised new role by an unknown person to help decide what crimes are reported to the public, usurping the NT Police media unit.

A little over a week later, this publication revealed the NT Police’s director of communications Margaret McKeown was dismissed without explanation, with sources saying media staff had been interrogated by detectives without any representation to try and find what police believed was a “leak” to the Independent about Ms Bacher’s role.

Ms Bacher is a senior marketing manager in Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet who gives strategic advice on the “Territory master brand” to the Chief Minister’s department. Her spiel on her Linkedin biography states: “The team I lead provides strategic marketing advice and services for NT government agencies, whole of government campaigns, major projects and the Territory master brand”.

The sources say it is now Ms Bacher, along with the police executive, who decide what crime will be reported to the public and how that will be done, with the work of distributing the information tasked to the media unit.

Previously, members of the executive would meet with a representative of the media unit daily to discuss those crimes.

The police force and the Fyles Government have repeatedly refused to say who created the secretive new role for Ms Bacher and why.

Mr Turner said that having Ms Bacher in this previously non-existent role compounded the lack of public trust in the pillars of government and that there was a culture of fear in the public service that was hurting the Territory.

“For government to have legitimacy, people have to believe in it, and regardless of what political spin-masters may want to believe, we live in a western democracy with policing by consent,” he said.

“Not an Orwellian dictatorship with policing by force and the spectre of big brother and the thought police.

“The culture of fear in our public service to avoid speaking out is holding the Territory back”

“We only need to look at Sergeant [Wolfgang] Langenecks courageously honest evidence [about the police response to domestic violence at the ongoing coronial inquiry] and the world of good that’s done for the coroner. Exactly the same thing that Sergeant Mark Casey tried to achieve in the open letter [about failures in police leadership] that led to his dismissal.”

The NT Independent was first informed Ms Bacher was in the role on June 2, when several sources said the police media unit members, including Ms McKeown, were moved out of the police executive headquarters in the NAB building in Smith St, relocated to the Peter McAulay Centre in Knuckey Lagoon.

Police media unit staff were also questioned by detectives after the NT Independent made the revelation about Ms Sita, the sources said.

“It looks like the media section office bugged… and detectives have come through and interrogated them,” one source said.

Mr Turner said that was a complete waste of police resources.

“I’d hazard a guess the detectives aren’t overly amused [about interrogating the media unit] and have better things to do with their time, like the epidemic levels of domestic and family violence,” he said.

“Problem is everyone is afraid of upsetting the powers that be and that has to change. We’re a democracy and if our elected officials don’t have the courage to do their jobs they need to either get out of the way for someone that does or have a good long read on the doctrine of ministerial responsibility and the Westminster system of government.”

The response from the NTPA and the Opposition

When questioned after the first article about Ms Bacher being installed, NT Police Association president Nathan Finn said he was going to discuss the perception of political interference, in a meeting he already had planned with Chief Minister Natasha Fyles.

When asked last week about the contents of the discussions in that meeting, he said he spoken with both the Chief Minister and the Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy regarding the matter, and had “assurances there is no political interference”.

He did not explain what was said to convince him there was no political interference.

When asked about what Ms Fyles and Mr Murphy said about why Ms Bacher had been put in the role, and what she was directed to do, he said: “Civilians within the department are not members of the NT Police Association and it would be inappropriate for us to provide any comment about their employment”.

“Whilst we have not received any direct feedback from members, both the Chief Minister and Acting Commissioner should know I take any perception of political interference incredibly seriously and will hold them to account if members raise concerns about this arrangement,” he said.

When asked about the use of detectives to interrogate the police media unit staff he said: “I am not privy to specifics around the employment of civilians within the department and consider it an internal human resources matter.”

In the almost three weeks since the publication of the original article, the Opposition has never publicly commented about Ms Bacher’s role and the alleged political interference behind it.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said in a statement that he CLP would not “stop fighting for answers from a Labor Government that operates in secrecy” but provided no evidence of what they had done in this instance.