EDITORIAL: Michael Murphy’s appointment as the Territory’s new top cop sends a clear message that nobody in the government wants the major dysfunction and ongoing allegations of corruption facing the NT Police to be cleaned up.

If anyone was hoping for the necessary clean-skin from interstate to arrive like a new sheriff and start throwing people in jail, keep waiting, because the rot in the NT Police executive is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Appointing Michael Murphy, who the Chief Minister said has been a cop here since 1997, is not a well-deserved promotion for a great man who has shown “his ability to shape strategic thinking” as she claims, it is purely about Natasha Fyles and her government’s self-interest.

Ms Fyles does not want someone from outside Clown Town coming in to this mess to uncover the dysfunction and chaos in the police executive that Ms Fyles, Police Minister Kate Worden and former police ministers Nicole Manison and Michael Gunner have known about for years and have repeatedly refused to take action on.

Typically, when a major appointment is made, the government makes a point of stating that a robust public recruitment process occurred. That was not mentioned this morning, although a proper process may very well have occurred, and it may be true that a deputy police commissioner from South Australia with vast experience was closely considered for the role.

However, Murphy had an advantage that nobody from interstate had: He’s been auditioning for the role for nearly five months and the Fyles Government clearly liked what it saw during the try-out.

During his short tenure in the acting role, Mr Murphy has permitted a Department of Chief Minister marketing manager to have oversight of his comms unit (raising concerns of government interference in police operational matters), he has shied away from and handballed a serious criminal complaint against a senior detective involved in the botched Rolfe investigation (raising concerns about corruption in the police), and he has gone on his own internal crusade to push people out who haven’t agreed with him in the past and promote his mates (raising concerns that he’s too entrenched here to have the necessary detachment to fix the real problems at the top).

Then there is his own involvement in the Rolfe investigation. Mr Murphy was in a secret executive meeting where murder charges against Zach Rolfe were discussed and later moved on despite there not being near enough evidence for the most serious criminal charge on the books.

Contrary to popular opinion, Mr Murphy’s hands have not been soaking in ivory on the Rolfe matter, despite his best efforts to distance himself.

He attempted to address the issue on Thursday, stating the obvious: The charging of Zach Rolfe has been “incredibly impacting” on police morale.

“It’s about rebuilding trust with the community and it’s about rebuilding trust in the workforce with the executive team as well,” he said about how he intended to fix the issues created from that scandal, without actually accepting the failures and addressing the alleged corrupt actions of the executive and others involved.

A guy who was involved from the inside and saw what was going on with missing coronial reports and other questionable evidence but said nothing is not the man to rebuild trust with either the wider community or his own troops.

He’s the man the government wants in the role so nothing gets fixed and the cover-ups continue.

It might also be worth noting that Ms Worden was not quoted in the press release about Mr Murphy’s appointment this morning, despite Nicole Manison being all over Chalker’s press release when he was appointed in 2019.

That could mean Fyles did this on her own and it should also probably serve as a harbinger that Ms Worden’s time in the role as minister is coming to an end.

Chief Minister Fyles recently indicated a cabinet reshuffle is in the works and Ms Worden is largely expected to vacate the police portfolio, but she should also leave if the now officially announced review into police is going to have any credibility.

But make no mistake, the new police review is not going to solve or even uncover the NT Police’s problems. The government just made sure of that with the appointment of Michael Murphy as commissioner.