The NT Police Commissioner who claimed earlier this year that he had never seen racism in the police force has offered a sweeping public apology to Indigenous Territorians for “past harms and injustices” inflicted on them over the past 150 years at the hands of the NT Police, while committing to “eliminating racism” in the force under his command.
Police Minister Brent Potter has pledged if re-elected the Lawler Government will pass legislation absolving itself of the responsibility to pay back Territorians for “many” decades worth of unlawful additional penalties added to fines by the Fines Recovery Unit, an announcement made on the second day of the caretaker period for a problem he said his government first learnt about on Tuesday.
Today’s national news includes the high cost of living could affect election chances for the Albanese government, increasing interest rates to hurt Labor at the next election, median mortgages hitting a new high, Royal Australian Navy receiving Austal’s 7th Cape-class patrol boat, and landmark deal for Northern Territory public school teachers struck.
The first official day of the 2024 election campaign kicked off in Palmerston on Thursday, as both major parties took to the battleground satellite city for press conferences, while an independent MLA found himself saving the day for the CLP when a couple of countrymen from Wadeye crashed the party’s presser making its politicians uncomfortable.
A damning report by the Productivity Commission has exposed the NT Government’s extensive failures to meet Closing the Gap measures meant to improve the lives of Indigenous Territorians, with the Territory recording the worst results of all Australian jurisdictions.
Continuing low-level riots in Woodroffe that saw up to 50 people fighting in the streets on Wednesday night and a car set on fire, meet the criteria for a curfew to be called similar to Alice Springs, the independent Member for Blain has said, while NT Police described the latest incident as a ‘disturbance’ of up to 20 people.
The federal and Northern Territory governments have signed an education deal that will see all public schools funded to nationally agreed minimum levels by 2029, but the federal Education Minister Jason Clare has tied the Commonwealth’s contribution to improvements in NT education.
Territory Labor says it will commit the $180 million to cover the bare minimum needed to tackle domestic violence in the Territory – if elected – after eight years of steady cuts to DV services and following internal reports released a year ago that warned the government’s cuts and inconsistent policies could result in “serious harm or death”.
People suffering a terminal illness should be allowed to choose to be legally killed, an NT voluntary assisted dying advisory panel report has recommended, but that would not be afforded to those suffering from mental illness without a terminal illness, or those who have lost their decision-making capacity due to dementia.
The NT Office of the ICAC has ejected the NT Independent from a national anti-corruption conference held at the Darwin Convention Centre, after the editor explained he wanted to ask some questions of the delegates, which resulted in a 12-month trespass notice being issued by NT Police.
St John Ambulance has signed a funding deal with the government worth up to $57 million for this financial year, while the government will also pay for a “reform consultant” to help address “agreed outcomes” from the clinical governance and ambulance service structural reviews, as well as an independent finance audit, the chief executive officer of the ambulance service has said.
Sentinel Property Group has applied to build a microbrewery and pub at Casuarina Square as part of a $10 million revitalisation plan for “The Quarter” entertainment precinct.
