EDITORIAL: The Public Accounts Committee hearing into the misuse of public funds and questionable contracts at the Darwin Waterfront Corporation was an absolute sham, spearheaded by the Finocchiaro CLP Government with a predetermined outcome given away by our hapless Attorney-General hours before the committee even heard submissions.
Rather than clearing the air and resolving serious allegations of misconduct and misuse of public funds, the public was left with more questions than answers by the end of the hearing, which was cut short by the CLP chair 45 minutes early while questions were still being asked.
But that didn’t stop the CLP from claiming victory and demanding the Opposition Leader apologise to “every public servant” for having the gall to refer the questionable practices of a few bureaucratic fat cats for public review, hurting their feelings by forcing them to front up to a committee.
We’re all supposed to forget the misuse of taxpayer funds and potential fraud because three CLP backbenchers, including one with a self-confessed conflict of interest, told us there’s nothing going on.
It’s Marie-Clare Boothby and Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro who should be apologising to every public servant for their cover-up that strikes at the heart of our public institutions, including the subversion of a parliamentary committee, and their failure to take appropriate action and refer the issues raised to an independent investigator. What transpired at the Waterfront has damaged the public service’s reputation, not the calls for an investigation into it.
If any other agencies pulled the stunts the Waterfront did, people would be sacked, but because this occurred under king public servant Alastair Shields through his little fiefdom at the Waterfront, nothing is happening and the CLP are complicit in it.
What occurred at the Public Accounts Committee hearing should serve as the last indictment on the Northern Territory, and the latest reason for the Federal Government to take over management of our institutions.
When the official transcript of that debacle is finally released – provided it hasn’t been altered – it should be put in an envelope and sent to Canberra express delivery.
What was ultimately revealed at the Public Accounts Committee hearing into corruption at the Waterfront is just how ignorant our elected representatives are about the public service and its diabolical machinations that have been harnessed by some who benefit from it and weaponised against the public who pay for it, which has gone on for decades and has led to a lot of good people leaving in disgust.
The show we witnessed on Tuesday had it all: one CLP MLA (Brian O’Gallagher) declared a conflict of interest halfway through the hearing but involved himself in the process because this is the Territory; we had the Attorney-General subvert the independence of the committee by suggesting that morning that the matter would be “put to bed” before it happened; we had the chair of the Waterfront tell the committee he was getting too “worked up” to provide closing remarks but found the courage to inexplicably inform the committee he had not fully completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course; and we heard baffling answer after baffling answer from Shields admitting to flouting public service hiring processes and at one point telling the committee an unnamed person in the Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet told him to extend Sam Burke’s contract in late 2023 – just months before his mate Andrew Kirkman got him a raise in the same department – but our inexperienced pollies never thought to ask who the hell told him to renew Burke’s contract.
Having three CLP backbenchers strong-arm two other MLAs into “unanimously” claiming they determined that four narrow issues were “unsubstantiated” is not the type of independent scrutiny the public expects. If the CLP truly believe nothing is going on, then they should have no issue referring everything for a proper independent inquiry.
They purposely cut from scrutiny the previous matters of Andrew Kirkman, a board member of the DWC, using his acting position as the head public servant last year to push through a pay rise for DWC chief executive Alastair Shields for his two-days-a-week job and then Shields turning around six months later and hiring Kirkman’s wife for an unadvertised role at the DWC on a huge pay packet they’re too embarrassed to make public.
That happened under this CLP government and the Waterfront’s clueless Minister Marie-Clare Boothby. She also would have been the person to renew Shields’s executive contract in March when it expired in the middle of unresolved mismanagement at the DWC, but we haven’t heard anything about that either.
There’s also the issue of Shields hatching a plan to get Andrew Kirkman’s sister and his mate Jodie Ryan public money after she resigned as the head public servant in May 2022, which hasn’t been resolved because he claims he didn’t send the letter requesting it. It shows how crooked the entire operation is.
None of the issues involving a questionable contract to the Chief Minister’s husband Sam Burke, ongoing higher duties arrangements, and claims of public funds being secretly transferred between corporations by Shields were resolved during the hearing. What we received instead was a bit of an insight into how they pulled it off, which they appear to have gotten away with to this point.
The Litchfield Room at Parliament House, where the hearing was held, is also where annual Estimates hearings are held. It’s a seemingly mystical place where seasoned public servants have been throwing fairy dust into the eyes of politicians for years, turning their brains to mush with no consequence.
And so it was when Shields and Waterfront chair Patrick Bellot showed up with a giant sack of fairy dust for five junior MLAs on Tuesday, four of whom were only elected in August and none of whom have ever been involved in an Estimates hearing.
Shields complied with public service hiring rules when he felt like it, breached them on other occasions
The PAC heard that Shields was purposely ending Sam Burke’s higher duties arrangements the day before they hit the six-month limit because he would have to advertise for the role of chief executive of the AustralAsia Railway Corporation if it went further than six months. He would then renew the HDA the next day for another six month term in order not to breach the Public Sector Employment and Management Act (PSEMA).
While this had been ongoing from 2018 into 2020, he unilaterally renewed Burke’s four-year Executive Contract Officer 1 contract in February 2020 while the HDA continued, but then two months later, in April 2020, mysteriously gave him a brand new contract at the ECO2 level so he no longer had to juggle the higher duties situation.
He knew he would have to advertise for the role or be in breach of the rules, but decided to go ahead and breach PSEMA by giving Burke the permanent increase in pay through a new contract that was never reviewed by anyone other than he and Burke.
Nobody asked how he did that and when independent MLA Justine Davis came close, he threw the biggest load of pixie dust at her and started talking about other contracts and never came back to the question.
It is absolute madness that he admitted he was renewing the higher duties allowance for Sam Burke every six months to avoid hiring for the role full time and then claimed he created a new “hybrid” role of deputy chief exec of the DWC and chief exec of a railway corporation nobody has ever heard of, as a “statutory role”, equivalent to the Auditor General, the Electoral Commissioner, the Ombudsman and the ICAC.
In her submission by way of a letter, Public Employment Commissioner Nicole Hurwood specifically stated that “where duties are to be performed for a period exceeding six months, the job must be advertised”, adding that “if after six months it is likely the temporary position will continue, it is required to be advertised”.
Shields claimed that while the Waterfront corporation adheres to PSEMA when it feels like it – apparently they didn’t feel like it when putting together huge sums of public money to pay Burke for two part-time jobs that sees him now on a $300,000 a year pay packet – he was not obligated to follow the rules.
There’s some serious inconsistency in that claim. He felt obliged to adhere to PSEMA when he was renewing the HDA every six months, but not when he rolled the money into a new ECO2 contract for Burke that he awarded without adhering to PSEMA.
Besides that little issue, the other problem for Shields is an internal DWC policy statement that specifically states the corporation’s “human resource management policy and procedures in relation to staff shall reflect the Northern Territory Government’s overarching policy and procedures in force at the time”.
But Hurwood stated there is “no formal requirement” for the DWC to adhere to PSEMA so there is nothing she can do about it – as if she would anyway.
Our Public Accounts Committee also seems to think that’s fine because “that’s the way it’s always been done here” and the CLP has no interest in changing anything. Shields can continue to give public money to whoever he wants without following PSEMA. But it doesn’t explain why every other employee at the DWC has to go through the proper processes under the Act.
He also claimed a previous part-time job for Burke at the Department of Trade, Business and Innovation was not “made up” because the role of major projects director already existed, just not filled for years. Former Waterfront board member and public servant Anne Tan corroborated the story, stating she picked Burke for the role, despite an internal memo previously reported by this masthead contradicting that story and showing Shields claimed he and his mate Michael Tennant made Burke take on the role with money from the department being funnelled to the DWC to pay him.
Moving money between publicly-funded corporations
In another unusual statement by Shields, he said he has a “standing” conflict of interest registered with the Waterfront board about his involvement as chair of AARC.
Despite this self-admitted conflict of interest, he and Burke routinely transfer public funds between the two bodies, to pay Burke his extra salary and for other purposes, which he called a “cost sharing arrangement”. Asked to explain, he said it was a “technical, financial, accounting thing” that really nobody there would understand so why bother explaining, adding that moving cash between the two bodies in which he has declared conflicts of interest was a “very routine matter”.
Asked directly if the movement of money was shown in annual reports, Shields sat still a long time thinking of how to answer before suggesting “we might [need] to explain that a little better”.
Don’t hold your breath for that. It does not appear that anyone is interested in following up on the matter. The South Australia Government should be concerned considering they contribute SA taxpayer money to the AARC. It is unclear if they know that money is being shifted around to pay the Chief Minister’s husband for a job that wasn’t publicly advertised as well as Shields’s own $65,000 salary to chair the AARC board on top of his $116,000 to be chief executive at the DWC for two days a week.
In their defence of Burke’s questionable contract, Shields and Bellot focused attention on the four-year contract Burke signed in November 2023 to take effect in April 2024, which they claimed was “in accordance with standard practices and complied with NTPS requirements”.
There may still be issues with that, including who in an “acting” executive role at DCM told him to renew Burke’s contract, but the real problem appears to be the 2020 contract, which was not addressed in their submission or their evidence to the committee.
Shields essentially rolled the higher duties he was paying Burke into the April 2020 ECO2 contract with zero oversight, which for all intents and purposes was still higher duties with money still being taken from the separate AARC to pay Burke for his role, including SA taxpayer money.
His argument essentially came down to the fact that he can do as he pleases at the Waterfront because it is essentially his own company – despite the shareholders being all Territorians who continue to pump millions into the money-losing corporation.
The fact that nobody wants to change the rules under which Shields is operating is astounding and could be outright misfeasance.
CLP more interested in playing politics than cleaning up public service
It was clear the two non-CLP members of the committee were pressured to reach a determination on the matter less than two hours after the hearing ended and before they could properly digest and review the four submissions from the DWC, the AustralAsia Railway Corporation, the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment and the Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet.
No sooner had that line about allegations being “unsubstantiated” gone on the PAC website, Boothby issued her press release that it appears her office wrote two weeks ago, claiming everything was “baseless” and really hurt Shields’s feelings, calling on Uibo to apologise to all public servants.
A final report by the committee, and any potential dissenting reports, have not been completed yet and won’t be until after Estimates.
It did not instil public confidence in the NT’s Parliament when Boothby was shown grinning at a press conference Tuesday morning, six hours before the hearing took place, stating that “today, when we hear from the Waterfront Corporation, we’re going to put these claims to bed”.
It didn’t matter what questions were asked. The CLP rigged it and Boothby proved that by her stupid comments.
Independent MLA Justine Davis is still finding her feet as a politician and clearly wasn’t ready for Shields’ fairy dust. But it remains a mystery to most why Labor sent in their worst performer Manuel Brown to engage in the PAC. Maybe they weren’t taking this seriously and have no real interest in seeing the Waterfront scandal cleaned up.
The CLP and the Waterfront’s argument has been inappropriately prosecuted by Mix 104.9 radio personality Katie Woolf, who along with NT News journo Gary Shipway, attacked the Labor Opposition during the Friday Mensa conference known as “The Week That Was” for not taking the private secret briefing Woolf’s husband Pat Bellot offered before the matter was referred to the PAC.
Considering the pair’s conflicts of interest – Shipway’s partner Giovanna Webb works directly for Lia in her office and he was a long-time CLP adviser – what did they think Selena Uibo would do after receiving the secret briefing?
Was she supposed to end the public outcry over the matter by telling everyone she had been privately briefed by some guy who can’t pass the company directors course who told her there are no issues?
We should all be alarmed that nobody has referred this to our anti-corruption body, but given acting ICAC Greg Shanahan’s glaring conflict of interest with Shields, it is at risk of falling into a four-year black hole, which is yet another reason for the feds to get involved on everything up here and another example that we are incapable of handling our own affairs.
There’s been talk in the fallout of the PAC hearing about “defamatory imputations” being thrown around amid this debacle, but the only defamatory comments made were by the Waterfront in its submission to the committee and subsequent email to unknown parties, taking up most of their submission with inaccurate, misleading and defamatory comments about this masthead and its editor.
But we’re not a litigious lot. We get the feeling the Waterfront gang are going to find themselves in court soon enough and we can all wait to see what further revelations come out then.
The NT Independent stands behind its reporting on this matter of public interest and will continue to expose the misuse of public funds, unadvertised contracts for mates and general deception at the highest levels of government and the public service.
But we need somebody to take the issues and investigate them properly. Our ICAC is compromised. The public’s trust has been completely lost and the future of the Northern Territory depends on these matters being taken seriously by appropriate bodies with the power to independently investigate and hold people accountable for their actions.
Piss off Chris, asking Canberra to take over is like your other allegations just bullshit.
Boof is that all you took away from that article?
The beloved and highly respected CLP are on the nose 8 months into their term and locals are asking what the hell did they vote for! I get it Boof, Chriss stuffed up, your not allowed to ask questions in the Territory, its the Territory way!
No they are not on the nose, all the rubbish Chris brings up are acts of the previous government of which Chris was obviously terrified.
Boof, your correct, the CLP opposition leader’s husband was very well looked after during a ALP governments term! Unheard of don’t you think?
Boof can the CLP hire your wife or daughter to get you onside. That seems to be a repeating pattern at the moment!
You’re…
It looks like Chris was actually at the PAC meeting – were you?
I think this has been going on since the first days of the Self Government Act of the Territory and its the first time we are openly reading and talking about it! If anyone knows the history of what the initial CLP Ministers got up to, you would know why they are all very wealthy with their useless kids put in plum jobs.
Think about it, 47 years of Self Government and we still have:
-Bugger all transparency
-No laws to stop you hiring your weird mates and disfigured family members.
-Political Donations (*or Kitchens) for Government Tenders is still how it works.
-All this corruption at the upper echelons of Government and the NT Police Force cant see a thing, cant find anything, nothing to see here.
All this is the result of having no real internal auditors, perhaps Chris could look at that, external auditors are more interested in next year’s fees and not rocking the boat.
NTG Auditor-General JULIE CRISP was excellent for 10 years & 4 X DWC Annual Reports were not signed off between 2006-2024 due to dodgy accounts trying to wash money. Are you a part of the cabal profiting from NTG DWC tax-payer theft. DWC Board are extorting Toga Waterfront apartment owners by skimming body corp levies in secret. We are sick of our levies rising for no reason. Thanks CHRIS!
@Jane Davies: Our household believes you 100%. What we would encourage you to do is 2 things. And this goes for anyone else is a similar situation to this.
Most people hate being sued, especially if they have done the wrong thing. The cost, stress and threat of it all going public is usually enough to halt most legal action resulting in early settlements. Not all but most.
Sometimes you don’t want a settlement, you want it all out in the public domain.
Your 2 things, and this is for other people to remember too, are:
1. If you suspect there may be criminal behaviour happening or has happened, then write out a simple cover letter stating what criminal behaviour you believe has happened. Then print off any evidence you believe supports your belief that criminality has occurred, this may include any articles published online detailing any of the behaviour you believe is criminal. NT Independent articles are a good start.
Then walk into a Police Station, tell the person on the desk you want to report a potential crime and hand them your folder. Ask for a Job Number or Promise Number so that you can track what is happening with your complaint. Then wait. Check in occasionally if you don’t hear anything.
2. Same as number 1 but you take all your evidence to a Civil Lawyer and seek to start a civil case against the Corporation or individual people within it who you believe have caused you financial harm. Ask the lawyer to look at your evidence and listen to your thoughts and then they will help you formulate a claim under Civil Jurisdiction Legislation.
It may be breach of contract, it may be fraud, it may be defamation – and you can get information before any defamation proceeding through a process called ‘Pre-action discovery’ or ‘Preliminary discovery’ if you have a reasonable belief that you may have been defamed.
Find a way to take them to court. They hate it. And turning the screw on them through court proceedings can be very satisfying.
Good luck. 🙂
Go woke, go broke is the accepted route to bankruptcy; the other way is to take the angel’s advice
I’ve written to Luke Gosling with a link to this article, making the point that if this were a local Council they’d have been sacked long ago, and probably with some behind bars. This has NOTHING to do with the party in power, as Footrot said.
Who do you think should be sacked, the remaining few Labor Members?
Boof, you didn’t read what I wrote. I won’t reply to you again unless you reveal your name, as I do.
Thank heavens for that, as you have nothing to contribute. By the way, I have been known as Boof or Boofhead since 1948
Mind blowing! I don’t know what to think it is so convoluted. My confidence has fallen, where to go for the truth? However as the owner of an apartment in Wharf 1, I am constantly being shocked by the quarterly body corp invoices which seem to be increasing steadily without anything to show for it and I still have to walk half a km to the road in the middle of the night towing luggage to get a taxi.
‘Boof’ doesn’t have ‘CLP’ in his limited vocabulary. Don’t give him any oxygen (like we are doing right now, duh). Trying to point out facts and basic ’cause and effect’ to him is pointless.
He’ll see ALP everywhere and CLP nowhere.
If we ignore him he’ll get bored and maybe stick to Facebook comments where one liners are king.
I have a box of tissues for you.
i would welcome our Chief Minister’s simple response to the following: And I believe you surely would have read all of the NT Independent “Editorial Publication” . . . will C.M. provide all territory adults in writing her reason / belief that she had indeed read and understood all of the content as provided by, from, the finding(s) of the PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE HEARINGS into the misuse of public funds and questionable contracts that reflect the words that might be expected: TRANSPARENCY / ACCOUNTABILITY? And as anticipated by the NT ELECTORATE? And . . . having done so, refer that copy of the “Public Accounts Committee Hearing for Public consideration and; Federal Govt assessment?
You should study parliamentary procedure. The report has yet to be tabled. After that, you can do what you want with it, refer it to the media regulators would be a good start.
There seems to be an engaged, for the most part, hub of activity around NT Independent articles for quite a few years now which is wonderful to witness.
We would encourage all readers and commenters who are interested in the truth, if they have a bit of spare time, to make this community into something of a little sibling of Bellingcat. Join in the fun. Help Chris and the team uncover more of this charade.
In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s an online citizen journalist/investigation team, some people call it open-source investigations.
Bellingcat
Investigative open source intelligence group
Bellingcat is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence. It was founded by British citizen journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014. Bellingcat publishes the findings of both professional and citizen journalist investigations into war zones, human rights abuses, and the criminal underworld. The site’s contributors also publish guides to their techniques, as well as case studies.
Go to bellingcat[dot]com if you want more of a deep dive.
We can pool our time and resources and with the help of some online AI tools, dig deeper into the people and any claims they make while in Government. Let the Internet help you, for example, uncover all the Boards and Committees and paid positions of Alastair Shields From The Public.
We’ve counted 10 so far in our household.
Remember these when he sits there and tells us all we don’t have a right to know what he’s doing for his mates and the Chief Minister’s husband, using our hard earned tax payer money.
These could easily be giving him $1 Million a year in salary!
And think about how fat his Super account balance must be!
Here is the list, feel free to check them out for yourselves, number 4 is jaw-dropping on the floor level, the hypocrisy:
Commissioner Licensing NT
Chair of the AustralAsia Railway Corporation
Chair of the Racing and Wagering Commission
Chair of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Board
Chair of Territory Natural Resource Management
Deputy Chair of the Racing Appeals Tribunal
Member of the Pastoral Land Board (NT)
Chief Executive Officer of the Darwin Waterfront Corporation
Director Greyhounds Australasia
NTG Rep on Joint Management Board for Kakadu National Park.
And certainly don’t forget that he sat in an interview with the ABC in April this year, where he stated quite openly that he has taken gifts from the bodies he’s in charge of regulating:
Alastair Shields says he’s attended the Darwin Cup as a guest of corporate bookmakers.
‘NT Racing and Wagering Commission (NTRWC) chair Alastair Shields told an ABC investigation he had attended the Darwin Cup as a guest of corporate bookmakers — a gift Mr Shields said he had declared.
Mr Shields said the commission had “very robust” conflict-of-interest processes in place and any gifts were declared at meetings.
*HINT: the issue is the fact you’re taking gifts from them, Alastair, you f**kwit.
The NTRWC operates as Australia’s de facto online gambling regulator, ruling on the behaviour of 36 bookmakers based in the NT, including giants such as Sportsbet, Ladbrokes and bet365.
Listen to him say it here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-17/nt-online-gambling-industry-gifts-ban-regulator/105184580
Just like the Pantomime Accounts Committee, Alastair Shields From The Public and Brian O’Gallagher think that as long as they say what they’re doing out loud, it has no adverse consequences for them.
Yes, they really are that stupid.
But, they also know that no one is going to do anything about it because historically and still now, as we all can see, they blurt out this nonsense and nothing changes.
Which is no surprise when you consider the quality of the NT’s politicians.
You do know all the pay rates are listed, all you have to do is google statutory authorities, but remember all these money gobblers were appointed by New Labor, not old Labor.
Hello Boof, the Northern Territory of Australia is the worst jurisdiction in Australia. Swearing at people like Christopher Walsh who report the facts is not going to improve the Northern Territory and will only make sure that the Northern Territory of Australia remains the worst substandard jurisdiction in Australia.
Why are you not getting stuck into your CLP Politician mates in NT Parliament who are docile and are not willing to make the professional best practice decisions and changes needed in the Northern Territory. Start holding your CLP Politician mates in NT Parliament to account or else the Northern Territory will never improve.
May I also suggest that you enlighten yourself with the facts and also read this this court decision about Andrew Kirkman
https://localcourt.nt.gov.au/sites/default/files/decisions/maria_rust_v_northern_territory_of_australia_2024_ntwhc_2.pdf
Lucio, your father’s memory was very good, but yours seems to be very short. All these scandals being pushed by Chris the Beaten were the responsibility of New Labor, not to be confused with Labor of the Hawke era. Andrew Kirkman, as you well know, was the previous government’s problem You lost the election.
Thank you Boof for your very kind words about my late Father who I agree was a top bloke Territorian and a successful businessman. The significant majority of Territorians at the August 2024 Northern Territory Election voted for a Change for the Better because of the failed eight years of the previous Gunner / Fyles / Lawler NT Labor Government. Sadly the same significant majority of Territorians are exasperated and frustrated that there has been no change for the better but in fact in many areas of policies and governance, Territorians have been delivered either the same or worse by this new Lia CLP Territory Government. Boof, you will note that in the federal electorate of Solomon in the August 2024 Northern Territory Election, over 33,000 Territorians voted CLP as a primary number 1 vote where all former NT Labor Territory Politicians lost their NT Darwin based Territory seats, whereas the CLP vote collapsed to around 19,500 primary number 1 votes in the May 2025 Federal Election, and as you know, the Federal ALP candidate Luke Gosling was again re-elected for a fourth time since the year 2016. Boof Territorians want change for the better not for the worst and they are exasperated and very frustrated with your underperforming and underachieving NT CLP Politician mates who engage in excessive histrionics and have failed in their probationary period and would have been dismissed if they had a real job in the private sector.
No, the CLP admin mob is now led by a real loser who, along with that idiot Littleproud, gagged Jacinta and ran a totally incompetent campaign; they did not even acknowledge they had a candidate in Lingiari until late in the campaign, so we ended up with useless Luke. The media is yet to admit we have a CLP government and like you keep blaming others for NT Labors disasters.
We won’t hog all the comment space, as we usually do, (apologies but we do feel strongly in this household about how deliberately bad NT politics is), however we will just make these points:
Alastair Shields From The Public stated in the DWC Pantomime, we’re paraphrasing: ‘this type of thing happens all the time’ the implication being ‘why are you asking me about it now?’, he also suggested ‘it’s always been this way, it’s not uncommon’.
Compare that to Acting Police Commissioner Dole who recently replied to someone asking for a more independent investigation into the recent death in custody: “This is the same in every state and jurisdiction in Australia and it’s no different in the Northern Territory,” he said on Monday.
The way to not keep repeating the same mistakes over and over is to Change the way things are done.
Just because it’s always been done in a certain way doesn’t mean it should continue in that way moving forward.
Just because every state and jurisdiction does things in a certain way doesn’t mean it should continue in that way moving forward either.
Pull your head out of your arse and see if you can find a new way to do things, a way that satisfies the very real public disquiet that the way it’s always been done is not acceptable anymore, Alastair Shields From The Public.
The way that you claim everyone else does things, Mr Dole, may not be how the NT wants things done anymore. Maybe by changing things and opening the NT up to more public scrutiny this will help other states and jurisdictions Change For Better too.
Be leaders, not followers all your life.
For example:
Look at the PAC Terms of Reference.
At (2) it states: The Committee will consist of six Members.
You will see that an Assembly resolution of 16 October 2024 provided that the Committee would have five members.
It doesn’t seem to state anywhere, other than at (4) The Committee will elect a Government Member as Chair, what the composition of that Committee should be.
It’s possible we’re missing something but why can’t the PAC be comprised of one CLP, one ALP, one Green, two Independents?
Where does it state that the CLP should have 3 sitting members?
That’s already looking like it what’s called ‘apprehended bias’ in the process.
After watching and listening to the hearing, we saw ‘actual bias’ in some of the things that were said.
The Game needs to Change. Blindly accepting the current rules only helps one group: currently the CLP. It would be the same for the ALP if they were in power though. This is why they are not making noises about changing The PAC Game.
But it is not truly representative of the public consciousness, nor is the voting system used to allocate Parliamentary seats but that’s for another discussion.
If we continue to accept the rules of Games like these then we are going to go round in circles getting similar outcomes from a different coloured political group: red one year, orange and black the next, then maybe orange and black again, then maybe red etc etc.
Apprehended Bias. Actual Bias is even worse but we’ll stick with Apprehended Bias for now to illustrate the point:
This is from the Australian Government Australia Law Reform Commission web site:
Where a party to litigation before the courts has concerns that the judge presiding over the matter may be biased, the party has two options. The first is to try to show that the judge is actually biased — but this is difficult to prove and is rarely alleged. More commonly, the focus is on appearances: a party will try to show that the circumstances might give rise to a reasonable perception that the judge might be biased (for example, because the judge is close friends with one of the witnesses). This is known as ‘apprehended bias’. If apprehended bias is shown, judges must remove themselves from the case, even if they are sure that in fact they could decide the case impartially.
So, if we look at what CLP Brian O’Gallagher said openly during the hearing about his prior relationship with Alastair Shields From The Public:
“I’ve worked with Alastair Shields on a number of major projects, including the railway project and the Inpex project, probably 10 or 20 years ago, I’ll just declare that, I certainly don’t believe it’s a conflict of interest in my assessment of this….we’re all into that at the moment.”
Alastair Shields From The Public: “I acknowledge our time working together on the railway project and other projects as well.”
Alastair Shields From The Public is a registered and practising lawyer.
Believe it or not, he is the Chairman of the NT Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Board. Really.
Both of those men should have understood that their relationship is not only an easy to spot conflict of interest, but that it falls under the definition of ‘apprehended bias’ above.
Not only that, but the Chair of a committee burdened by such a conflict or claim of apprehended bias should have not allowed Brian O’Gallagher to sit on it and participate in any decision making.
This is why it was so laughable.
To have any Attorney General not notice that or bring it up shows us that she is complicit in protecting her boss’s husband and his mates from openly rorting our system and using and abusing it for their own financial gain.
In addition, to hear nothing from the ALP about this just shows you either how inept they all are or as we think, how they don’t want anything to Change For Better either.
This is not an accident.
The only thing that should be “put to bed” Marie-Clare is you, in an old people’s home.
Sorry, lastly, remember that citizens can start private criminal prosecutions here in the NT, if the Police decline to do so for whatever reason. Ask a friendly criminal lawyer to assist you in writing up the charge sheet or maybe Community Legal Aid could assist.
If you choose to report it to the Police first, this might be a good place to start:
Conspiracy to Defraud Offences in Australia
Conspiracy to defraud is a serious criminal offence in Australia. It involves an agreement between two or more people to dishonestly cause a loss or obtain a financial advantage—even if the fraud is never completed.
It is often associated with corporate misconduct, investment scams, fake invoicing, insurance rackets, and tax evasion schemes. Conspiracy to defraud targets the agreement to deceive, not just the act itself, and carries severe penalties, including imprisonment and fines.
This guide outlines what the offence means under Australian law, how charges are laid, the court process, common legal defences, and how each state and territory addresses conspiracy offences.
What Is Conspiracy to Defraud?
Conspiracy to defraud occurs when two or more people:
Agree to act dishonestly or deceptively
With the intention of causing economic harm or gaining a benefit
Even if no money is exchanged or harm is done
Common examples include:
Planning to falsify invoices for tax rebates
Coordinating false insurance claims
Arranging to trick investors into a fake business venture
Conspiring to hide company debts or manipulate financial reports
Participating in a fraudulent Centrelink or ATO scheme
The prosecution must prove:
There was a common agreement between two or more people
The purpose was to deceive or defraud
The conduct was dishonest by community standards
https://criminallegal.com.au/fraud-offences/conspiracy-to-defraud
The more people who report this kind of behaviour, the more seriously they’ll have to take it.
Remove it from the Pantomime (in)Action Committee.
All halo and no hands, try doing something yourself.
Based on a clear and obvious case of Apprehended Bias, that even first year Law Degree students would recognise, something that Chairman of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Board Alastair Shields From The Public didn’t flag either you’ll all notice, we believe there are grounds to have this issue investigated again, using a completely different group of MLAs.
The same as having a mistrial declared due to apprehended bias or actual bias and a retrial being ordered with a different and hopefully balanced jury this time.
There’s a high profile criminal retrial (although not for bias, this was because there was a hung jury who previously couldn’t make a unanimous decision on her guilt or innocence) happening right now in the USA if you care to explore: search for ‘Karen Read retrial’ or read this:
https://apnews.com/article/karen-read-murder-trial-police-massachusetts-98273d143dbf781a57c78fdaf64c0c32
Come on it was a mixed lot of members, you want to pick the judge for your own trial, apparently.
Good morning,
Let’s all look at honesty and respect, attributes and rights that thousands gave their lives, fighting for freedom, democracy and the Australian way of life!
BOOF you disrespect our democracy and freedom of speech with each and every comment you offer, yellow backed, l would suggest, and with out the self respect and dignity to present under your birth certificate listed name!
In fact you disrespect your own family name, you present yourself to the wider community as anonymous which gives great cause to understand you, within each comment, do not have faith or belief in your own mentions and thoughts!
When you think about this you can well appreciate l am correct!
Gutless and weak l could have suggested, save as to time, traits most unbecoming of what a community has in its mind, endearing qualities of a leader, little own a MAN!
Step up or step off, your a big boy now be at one with your dropped balls!
You’re…
And you wanted to be elected to the senate, thank heavens the voters saw through you.
Does anyone know who wrote the 4 narrowly framed questions in the Terms Of Reference for the Pantomime Committee?
Was it NT Government lawyers: Solicitors For Northern Territory? Or the CLP MLAs?
We can’t imagine they would have allowed the ALP to write them.
Also, regarding the issue of commenter identification.
My husband and I strongly agree on this: the identity of a commenter, in this arena at least, to us is unimportant and does not take anything away from the legitimacy of the comment or the veracity of it. In fact, depending on the situation, the comment sometimes has more weight because the commenter can be safe behind a different name.
It’s irrelevant to us who was originally responsible for the chaos unfolding now, it’s who’s in charge now and what are they doing about it now, that’s of more importance.
The only reasonable opinion one can form from the lack of action into what’s been going on in the DWC for many years it seems, is that the CLP doesn’t want to do anything about it exactly because it’s the Chief Minister’s husband and LiaR herself who are directly benefitting from all the extra money he’s been gifted by one of his friendly fellow long term public servants.
Here’s it boiled down for you, regardless of who started it, the outcome is the same:
ALP caused it/encouraged it/is responsible for it/allowed it/paid for it all/turned a blind eye to it – CLP is doing nothing to remedy it or putting something in place so that it doesn’t happen in the future.
CLP caused it/encouraged it/is responsible for it/allowed it/paid for it all/turned a blind eye to it – CLP is doing nothing to remedy it or putting something in place so that it doesn’t happen in the future.
Therefore underlining the fact we’ve been saying for close on a year now, on here anyway:
The only real difference, outside of a few policy tweaks, between the ALP and the CLP is the letter ‘A’ or ‘C’.
They both LOVE TICKS.
What beggars belief is that the CLP is not making any political capital from this so-called ALP created and supported mess.
To the contrary, they are actively squandering political capital from this so-called ALP created and supported mess.
That’s the really funny part. 🙂
No one is asking this: Why was Sam Burke not called to give written or oral submissions? No prizes if you answer correctly this time.
Patrick Bellend shouldn’t have even been in the building, he had nothing to do with it at the time all the backroom deals were going on.
All he did was use up valuable time on his little snowflake hurt feelings.
Still think The Game is not rigged?
Well we’ve got to look on the bright side of life I guess, and there is a silver lining.
They can’t get their hands on the Port.
If in future there was a Port buy-back, there would have to be an All-Australian-Definitely-Not-Chinese Port Authority (AADNCPA), and guess who the senior execs would turn out to be, on astronomical salaries? May THAT never happen.