EDITORIAL: The bizarre spectacle involving the alleged assault of Administrator David Connolly by the Federal Member for Solomon Luke Gosling has once again put the Northern Territory in its seemingly perpetual role as the laughingstock of the country, as the jokes fly thick and fast at our expense.

Whoever said there are no statesmen in politics anymore could not have comprehended the madness of this situation and the lack of maturity exhibited by both men unable to handle this themselves before turning to the already strained police and court system to manage on their behalf, at taxpayer expense, while creating a national media circus.

This will undoubtedly end badly for both and more importantly, Territorians, who will have to pay for it all.

But this chapter is made worse right now by an arrogant and amnesiac NT Police executive that cannot recognise its own shortcomings and piss-poor track record when it comes to high-profile investigations into public figures.

The Gosling matter needs to be referred to the AFP or an interstate police agency – which has and can be done – before we get past the point of no return, which we probably already surpassed when Gosling was arrested at his home and later charged on scant evidence.

That Police Commissioner Martin Dole and others say this is a routine assault investigation that police undertake all the time shows a severe lack of understanding that police do not investigate federal members of Parliament all the time, especially when the alleged victim is the King’s representative who runs this place on paper, with a maximum 14-year jail term on the line.

Most were surprised to learn last Friday that the police’s cracker investigation has yet to turn up any video evidence of the two alleged assaults 30 minutes apart at the Darwin Thai Festival last month, but nevertheless was used to charge the Federal MP with those special assault charges involving interfering with the Administrator in the course of his duties.

No independent witnesses at a public event attended by hundreds. No CCTV footage. And no corroboration an assault even took place from anyone other than Connolly’s wife.

That could certainly change, but spoiler alert: we’ve seen this play before and it ends with the police stuffing it up.

The Acting Director of Public Prosecutions saw the problem with his involvement this week and referred the matter to the Commonwealth DPP on Wednesday, but the NT Police executive continues to insist on completing this investigation internally with no independent oversight, putting themselves and the public at a disadvantage.

What acting DPP Pat Williams did was the right thing, especially in a place like Darwin, where the conflicts are thick.

In this case, he recognised that he would be perceived as auditioning for the permanent DPP role to the CLP Government and the Police Minister/Chief Minister if he pursued charges against a Labor MP. He pulled the pin to get out of the situation in which he felt he and his office could be compromised.

We heard the Chief Minister and the Police Commissioner loud and clear when they said any assertion the police would be politically motivated was “insulting”.

Our response is, frankly, we don’t care how you want to take it or if it hurts your feelings, history has shown us you need to bring in independent oversight of this wacky investigation in the best interests of the Northern Territory.

NT Police had body to investigate ‘politically sensitive matters’ and still stuffed up cases

During the bail hearing on Friday, the NT Police’s lawyer Jessica Readman, under instruction from former police lawyer and now executive director of the Police Commissioner’s office Sandy Lau (nothing weird there at all), claimed multiple times in the minute she spoke that the police contend Gosling was not invited to the Thai Festival where the alleged assaults took place.

She was later corrected by Gosling’s lawyer Marty Aust, who told the court that Gosling had been invited by the president of the Thai Association. (Which is true, the NT Independent has verified).

But as Aust spoke, one of the detectives on the case could be seen in court shaking her head, as though she disagreed with the proven fact that Gosling was invited to the festival.

If their case hinges on whether Gosling was invited to attend, then their investigation is worse than first thought.

Basic investigative process would be to call and verify the facts at some point, especially if they thought that was so important to their case.

Notwithstanding the already identified problems with the current case, history shows us the police cannot investigate this kind of politically sensitive matter themselves.

Back in 2016, in the wake of then-police commissioner John McRoberts’ charges for attempting to pervert the course of justice, the NT Police struck up a body called the Special References Unit.

It was a precursor to the ICAC, a group hiding in the bowels of the Peter McAuley Centre that was to be independent of police with the sole purpose of investigating “politically sensitive” matters involving politicians, senior public servants and police themselves.

It disappeared without a trace when the ICAC was established in late 2018 – or so we thought.

It reappeared in a cloud of smoke in 2020 with a fresh secret investigation into former senior cop and children’s commissioner Colleen Gwynne. The investigation was so secret the ICAC didn’t know it was done.

Here was the best and brightest in the NT Police force, the elite squad, cloaked in “independence”, doing what they do best, investigating politically sensitive matters and pulling the Devil’s greatest trick by making the public think they didn’t exist.

Gwynne needed to be charged for abuse of office, the SRU found, for hiring a mate for the deputy children’s commissioner role. They subsequently convinced the DPP to pursue the charges to trial due to the richness of SRU’s secret investigation that involved surveilling Gwynne’s home and office, setting up listening devices and wiretaps, rummaging through bank statements and other covert tactics to ensure no stone was left unturned in bringing her to justice.

Two days into the trial, the case was aborted due to a lack of evidence.

Never mind it took years to get to that point and the massive waste of taxpayer money and resources for a matter that should have started and ended with Gwynne being sacked for hiring a mate.

If that were the only example of police stuffing up a recent major case, it would be enough to raise reasonable doubt in the minds of the public that the police cannot handle the Gosling investigation by themselves, whether the SRU exists or not.

But then there’s the expert, fully professional investigation the NT Police conducted into former constable Zach Rolfe.

NT Police executive have history of interfering in sensitive cases

To sum the Rolfe investigation up: it involved blatant interference by then-police commissioner Jamie Chalker and others; it saw a lead detective manipulate an expert witness into changing his testimony to suit the police investigation; and then there was a cover-up of unprecedented proportions that saw Chalker attempt to bury the evidence a separate investigation dug up that contradicted his investigation. Which he almost got away with.

“I’m sick of the attacking of the integrity of members of our police force,” Martin Dole told Mix FM on Thursday morning.

“The only people that are politicising this [case] are certain members of the media and the defence [legal team] who decided to use this as a strategy.”

Problem for Dole is we’re not using it as a strategy; we want a proper independent investigation for the sake of justice and common sense and for the good of the Northern Territory.

And we brought the receipts of police misconduct in high-profile investigations in just the last five years, which Dole was connected to as a senior executive.

The Chief Minister’s claims she was not briefed about the case at all as Police Minister is about as believable as her claims she did not know about Connolly’s offensive social media posts before appointing him Administrator.

If Dole doesn’t want the public to question the integrity of his police force, then he should do something about cleaning it up. A good starting point would be to hold the lying five to account for lying under oath about the racist awards the TRG handed out for years (which also saw police interference in that investigation), or go all in and hold a full judicial inquiry into the NT Police that Lia herself called for seven times while in opposition but refused to follow-through on once elected.

Dole doesn’t seem to understand it’s in his force’s best interest to refer this matter so that any claim Gosling could make about political interference is mitigated.

Let’s also make this clear on the Gosling affair right now: we are not defending the Member for Solomon. If he did assault the Administrator then he needs to be held to account for that.

What Territorians deserve is assurance the investigation is done properly and independently so we don’t have another Gwynne or Rolfe situation on our hands when this goes belly-up. Which it will, if history is anything to go by.