EDITORIAL: Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s disastrous handling of the Michael Murphy scandal has raised serious questions about her judgement as Chief Minister and leaves a number of outstanding questions about the integrity of certain institutions in the NT, after the full ICAC report was tabled in Parliament yesterday.
What’s clear is that nobody in a position of power in the Northern Territory wanted to do anything about Murphy’s improper conduct when it was presented to them by an interstate retired judge in the ICAC’s report last month.
We can all also safely assume that if Michael Riches were still in the job, Murphy would have been cleared, as he was for the questionable hiring practice of overseeing his mate Martin Dole appointed Deputy Police Commissioner, and the Chinese restaurant incident, and the incessant lying to the public about racism in police and lying to a domestic violence inquest.
Lia Finocchiaro tabled the ICAC’s Operation Apollo report Tuesday morning, after hesitating on Monday, stating that she was still waiting on further advice from the ICAC, which turned out to be advice from ICAC Inspector Bruce McClintock.
What McClintock wrote in his advice raises serious questions about our Chief Minister’s capacity to do her job.
He had to explain to her that she could table the report because it was in the public interest to provide “transparency” in government, and that essentially she has parliamentary privilege to do and say as she likes in Parliament.
How did she not know that after 13 years in Parliament?
But that wasn’t the only advice she claimed she received, although it is the only advice made public so far. It’s the other advice that is suspect.
We raised her options and reminded her of her responsibility under various codes of conduct to expose misconduct, urging her to take action, when the ICAC’s delegate issued a public statement about an unnamed “senior public officer”, nearly three weeks ago, on February 28.
Instead, she bumbled around for days, claiming first that the ICAC – now revealed to be commissioner Greg Shanahan and deputy commissioner Naomi Loudon – told her not to publicly name Murphy, which it appears Lia took to mean that she could also not take action against him.
Her initial instinct was to treat the whole affair as an “educational tool” for public servants, which she claimed Shanahan and Loudon told her was best.
That was until Murphy outed himself as the subject of Operation Apollo and she finally took action by moving to terminate him after facing massive political and public pressure. No new facts had presented themselves in the time from her receiving the report and claiming it was an “educational tool” to the day she finally moved to sack him. She knew it was him all along, in a report she had been handed by an interstate ICAC delegate.
Where would we be if he hadn’t outed himself?
If the ICAC told her or implied that she should not do anything, that kind of advice is suspicious and raises questions about the Office of the ICAC’s motives and further questions about the Chief Minister’s integrity if untrue.
The Office of the ICAC does not wish to comment on what precisely it told the Chief Minister last month, which is allegedly now in stark contrast with the actual report by ICAC delegate Patricia Kelly, which we now know, had informed the Chief Minister that she could table it in Parliament if she wanted.
Not once did Lia say anything about that option until Friday night, after the NT Independent sent questions again outlining her options for tabling the report, and more than a week after independent MLA Justine Davis threatened to name him herself under parliamentary privilege.
We’re still left with questions amid the few choice paragraphs that were redacted that might contain information very much in the public interest despite claims to the contrary.
The Chief Minister later claimed that Shanahan and Loudon’s advice was backed up by Solicitor-General Nikolai Christrup. What exactly the SG’s advice is we will also never know, as she has refused to make it public, despite being given the opportunity and there being precedent for releasing that kind of advice in the public interest.
The only thing one can infer from this whole debacle is that there was no appetite from anyone in the Northern Territory to take action against the Police Commissioner for his proven misconduct. Even from the Office of the NT ICAC, whose own delegate did the hard work and proved misconduct.
This is troubling for any number of reasons and goes to the heart of the sickness afflicting the Northern Territory, the lack of integrity, where the political parties are all in it together with the public servants and even statutory bodies, while everyone spins around the corrupt merry-go-round.
It’s no wonder Lia backed away from implementing a proper public inquiry into the broad dysfunction in the NT Police, which continues to struggle under poor leadership and a cloud of corruption – she did not want to deal with what would be unearthed.
What faith can any of us have in those in positions of power in the Northern Territory to do the right thing when confronted about misconduct, rather than the status quo response of pretending it didn’t happen and hoping nobody brings it up publicly?
We promised we would be holding the powerful accountable to the public when we started the NT Independent and we will continue to do that by exposing the very things they want to keep hidden from you.
But at some point, we’re going to need our leaders to lead and put Territorians ahead of themselves in order to clean this place up. Every aspect of the Territory’s future is dependent on that.
What a load of vindictive bulldust Lia handled it professionally
rubbish. Liability lied about the advice she received and sought to obfuscate the facts in the report. Chief Minister is not a place to put your training wheels on.
When you seek to be the leader of the sitting government, and rode on a campaign of no nonsense transparency, you better have your big girl pants on when you leave the house.
Everybody learns on the job, including you and me. Had she released all of the details without first checking the legal ramifications she would now possibly be unemployed. Just look at the previous government and their indiscretions (with NO consequences). It is a long list and Lia is smart enough not to act until she is clear on her legal and moral obligations.
She is shaping up to be one of our best CM’s since Porky. Give her the chance to address the complex issues that have been systemic since Unclear Martin took power.
Now that was a joke beyond comprehension.
Well done Boof!
Great to know there is a human, that comments, without the courage or self respect and can only emerge to sprout their view under a false name!
You sir are a classic!
Lia’s governance stinks BUT l wager you do all right from it hey!
Glad you didn’t go by the name boof head because that label is synonymous with good old fashioned Aussie mate ship, and that you are not!
“questions about the integrity of certain institutions in the NT”
~we believe those questions have already been answered, in spades.
“What’s clear is that nobody in a position of power in the Northern Territory wanted to do anything about Murphy’s improper conduct”
~Quite the opposite, all ALP and CLP MLAs voted into law the recommendation from the pre-ICAC Commissioner Greg Shamahan, to keep names like his secret. Makes us wonder how much they knew was eventually going to spill out from the NT Police when they appointed Greg Shamahan to do his secret-not-secret review.
~Not to mention “the incessant lying to the public about racism in police and lying to a domestic violence inquest” that they would all have known about too.
~See, they don’t want to set a precedent because they all know how rotten the system really is. They are privy to information the public is not. And they appointed many of those kinds of people, while protecting others like Andrew Kirkman and Hylton Hayes from its consequences.
“What McClintock wrote in his advice raises serious questions about our Chief Minister’s capacity to do her job.”
~You fell into the trap: it only raises questions if you believe her job is to run the Government for the benefit of Territorians.
~It’s the same trap as saying: the system is broken. It’s only broken for some; it works like a well oiled machine for others: Kirkman, Hayes, Phil Brennan in Health, Greg Shamahan, Naomi Loudon, whoever the next recipient of protection will be, etc
“How did she not know that after 13 years in Parliament?”
~thats a rhetorical question, right?
“now revealed to be commissioner Greg Shanahan and deputy commissioner Naomi Loudon – told her not to publicly name Murphy”
~Loudon came from 8 years at the ODPP, that same ODPP full of nepotism and God knows what else, that same ODPP whose ex-DPP Rex Wild gave a character reference for lawyer Matt Hubber (Rex is his father in law) so he could get off with NO CONVICTION RECORDED for buying cocaine on two separate occasions, that we know of, that same Matt Hubber who is now magically on the publicly available NT Legal Services List 2025: at no.20. Hubber Legal: to provide outsourced legal services to the NT Government….yeah that ODPP.
~Greg Shamahan tasked to do his secret ICAC Act review from inside the CM’s Office by Fyles and was appointed directly, endorsed, applauded and celebrated by Finnochiaro to be ICAC Commissioner after being given a public service medal. ROTFLMAO.
~If those 2 gave direct advice to keep a senior Government name hidden from public view then this whole ICAC Office needs completely gutted. Disband it, relieve it of its NTG staff and their mates and start over.
~Rewrite the ICAC Act, remove Greg’s dirty work for starters. Have it rewritten by someone outside of the NT, in fact you could probably cut and paste from someone else’s Act which has much more transparency in it. But there needs to be proper consequences too – we’ll say it again: give it prosecutorial powers instead of just recommending things which are easy to ignore.
~Actually it should not be allowed to be called the Independent Anything. It clearly and obviously is not independent.
“which she claimed Shanahan and Loudon told her was best”
~Of course they did, that’s their job, to protect Government from exposure and scrutiny. Remember the trap!
“raises questions about the Office of the ICAC’s motives”
~See the answer above.
“The only thing one can infer from this whole debacle is that there was no appetite from anyone in the Northern Territory to take action against the Police Commissioner for his proven misconduct. Even from the Office of the NT ICAC, whose own delegate did the hard work and proved misconduct.”
~This is the inevitable outcome when you staff the place the way it has been staffed, by the collaborative efforts of both 2 main parties.
~When are you going to stop acting surprised that they’re behaving in this way?
“the lack of integrity, where the political parties are all in it together with the public servants and even statutory bodies, while everyone spins around the corrupt merry-go-round.”
~Finally the penny has dropped! Glad you’ve been listening to us.
“she did not want to deal with what would be unearthed”
~Agreed. This is going to happen again and again, trust us.
“we’re going to need our leaders to lead and put Territorians ahead of themselves in order to clean this place up”
~Not going to happen. We said before: that’s like asking a snake not to be a snake. Or ‘boof’ not to be ‘boof’. They are what they are, they’ve shown us in case we didn’t know already. He is what he is, no point berating him to be someone he’s not. He’s actually a good sign post: we need him not to change so we can see where not to go. And he’s funny, so please don’t scare him away.
~Exposing them is one thing. We now need to get rid of them from the political arena and that involves replacing them with incorruptible people. We need a Team, not the odd one or 2 sprinkled throughout with no power to ever change anything.
~But we also need a systemic change because they set up the current failing system to be the way it is so that it benefits them more than us. And we let them do that because we are naive and gullible. We don’t want to believe that those nice smiley people we voted in are abusing the system (they set up deliberately) for them and their mates ahead of us.
~The 2 main parties are jointly responsible for $11 Billion in net debt and counting. A lot of that was from Gunner as Treasurer but the CLP is no better. Now we’re going all out Trump with ignoring legislative scrutiny for ‘big projects’. We all know how that’s going to end. Keep a close eye on the companies who are going to be enriched from this political gift.
~If you think the people and parties who got us into this mess are the same ones who are magically going to change and get us out of it then you are delusional and/or stupid.
~Change it and Change them, it’s the only way. Cut out the cancer and start afresh.
If you have questions about the recently added news that Labour Party, aka former Chief Min Natasha Fyles knew about it a year ago and did nothing about it, please feel free to email the Qualified Swim Teacher now qualified Cheif Executive Officer of a Tax Payer subsidized NGO, Sommerville (where Whats-Her-Face Halloran the former Administrator came from) on scs@somerville.org.au
Lia saved the taxpayer about $2.5M when compared to the last Commissioner who was sacked. She was methodical, careful and effective.
Thanks for sharing the Somerville email. I will lodge a complaint to the board who employed Natasha FYLES? An NTG ALP bully who mandated a COVID Bioweapon, closed small businesses & schools, locked down NT borders & locked up travellers for 2 weeks, forwarded a $2,500.00 invoice, all creating metal health issues due to isolation & a feeling of powerlessness. Somerville needs a compassionate human being not a person who ruined lives.
Here is some of the other background stuff we’re up against, of particular note: “Greg Shamahan – master of navigating the public service”:
Meredith Day long time NT Government Solicitor becomes an NT Judge (she’s not the first and certainly won’t be the last), this is from her ceremonial sitting transcript, online:
‘as a government solicitor with the Northern Territory Attorney-General’s Department including an extended period acting as the Chief Executive Officer of that department’
‘As had been the case with Hunt & Hunt, you quickly rose through the ranks – December 2007 to October 2008: temporary transfer to Department of Primary Industry; from October 2008: Director of the Legal Unit at Department of Health and Families; from 21 January 2013: Acting Director of Litigation; from October 2013: permanent Director of Litigation; from 28 January 2014: Acting Deputy Chief
Executive Officer of the Attorney-General’s Department; from June 2015: permanent Deputy CEO; 2018 and part of 2019: Acting CEO when Greg Shanahan, who is here today, was off for a year.’
‘Greg Shanahan tells a story of a dinner party at Fannie Bay Super Pizza shortly after Your Honour was appointed a Judge of the Local Court. The festivities were in full swing when Greg noticed that the newly minted Judge was reading something. Challenging Your Honour as to what could possibly be so interesting, Your Honour sheepishly produced the Sentencing Act.’
‘I also had the privilege of working with many outstanding people at the Solicitor for the Northern Territory and throughout government from 2005 to 2019. I was and am in awe of many of them. It is a great joy to see so many former colleagues from the Solicitor for the Northern Territory, the Attorney-General’s Department and NTG more broadly, in attendance. I want to give a special mention to Greg Shanahan, a person with a keen understanding of legal issues and master of navigating the public service. While no-one could match his expertise, Greg’s guidance equipped me with the skills necessary to effectively work in government. I very much value my friendship with Greg and Rachael and it is lovely that they are able to be here today also.’
I understand that there are some bad and incompetent eggs in the Public Service but after more than 20 years of Labor Government, it is going to take more than 6 months to identify them. ‘Slowly slowly catchy monkey’