EXCLUSIVE: The man who organised five senior NT Police officers to sign sworn statements that the racist Nooguda awards were not racist has refused to answer questions about why those five officers were chosen and what was said to them before their misleading statements were tendered to the court, the NT Independent can reveal.
The Finocchiaro Government has announced an extra $3.9 million in funding for Legal Aid NT this financial year, but an internal email sent to staff warned the agency will still have to find savings, including being more stringent in who was provided legal aid, while hoping the government will increase its base funding for next financial year.
A reckless driving incident in Alice Springs involving a stolen vehicle colliding with several taxis Thursday night has the NT Police asking for the public’s assistance, with one of the taxi drivers reportedly attacked twice and threatened with an unspecified weapon.
A Darwin man who allegedly masturbated in public in front of multiple victims in the CBD on multiple occasions since August has been arrested and charged following a raid of his residence, NT Police said.
The Northern Land Council has placed two buoys on the Finniss River because of illegal fishing in Aboriginal waters, but said it was not an indication of new or changed access arrangements, while the land council said other parts of that coastline remain closed while long-running access negotiations continue.
Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has cancelled his VIP-only unveiling of the controversial Cyclone Tracy memorial sculpture, claiming the Prime Minister had a “bad personal issue” to deal with and could not attend, then attempting to justify keeping the $300,000 in government funding for the memorial by bizarrely claiming that while the sculpture is not a memorial, giving the money back “would be a slap in the face” to Cyclone Tracy survivors who helped select the design.
Environmental lawyers who represented Tiwi Islanders in their bid to stop gas giant Santos’ Barossa Gas Project from going ahead have been ordered to pay the company more than $9 million in legal costs, after the Environmental Defenders Office was found to have engaged in “a form of subtle coaching” during the case.
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency will not say whether any directors resigned from the board at its annual general meeting on Wednesday, while NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby issued a statement seemingly showing she did not know what happened at the meeting, but that she expected the entire board had stepped down or she would re-direct the organisation’s funding elsewhere.
Darwin Mayor Kon Vatskalis will not say how the design for the controversial Cyclone Tracy memorial was selected, or how it represents the disaster, with one survivor pointing out its similarity to the artist’s earlier works said to represent temptation in the Garden of Eden, while an international transparency organisation has criticised a gag order signed by the committee that approved the design.
EXCLUSIVE: NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy misled Coroner Elisabeth Armitage in two separate coronial inquests, first when he claimed at the inquest into domestic violence that a senior officer who shared a picture on social media of a half-naked domestic violence survivor could not be disciplined because it would affect his family and later when he claimed at another inquest that he would order a review into the matter.
NT Health is alerting residents and visitors to be vigilant about melioidosis, with three cases reported in the Greater Darwin region since the start of the current reporting period on October 1.
Darwin Port operator Landbridge’s financial problems have raised the prospect of the NT CLP Government terminating its lease with the company, the NT Treasurer has indicated, with the matter set to be discussed with the Federal Government tomorrow.
