Urban Rampage has been ordered by the national corporate regulator to stop customers on welfare paying through a federal government credit scheme, with the agency saying the company targets welfare recipients living in remote Aboriginal communities, and more than 5,000 customers had signed up at the Alice Springs store alone.
Today’s national news includes Australians waiting for the RBA decision on the interest rate, Australia and Indonesia teaming up for battery supply chains, PM Albanese launching a $2 billion fund to boost trade with Asia, and Western Sydney International Airport operating a digitised aerodrome.
A group of native titleholders are appealing the NT Supreme Court’s decision supporting the government granting a water licence at Singleton Station, arguing the licence was a risk to Aboriginal culture and land, the Central Land Council has said.
NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy was too drunk in a Chinese restaurant to recall if he racially abused staff, the ICAC says, so the anti-corruption watchdog has determined it is not in the public interest to pursue the complaint, a letter to the coronial inquest has revealed.
The Territory Response Group’s so-called “Noogada awards”, which were handed out annually to members of the elite NT Police unit who exemplified the worst personal hygiene “or feral behaviour”, were written on paper with an Aboriginal flag in the background, the coronial inquest has heard, the day after TRG members swore in statements that the awards had nothing to do with race.
Today’s national news includes Turkish Airlines debuts in Australia, the Philippine President visits Australia to strengthen ties, WA becomes the first state to ban non-compostable takeaway coffee cups, and Australia approves a record low number of student visas.
The Lawler Government has agreed with a recommendation from a review of the Territory’s secondary school system to scrap middle schools across the NT, and rolling them into high schools.
Territory Response Group members confirmed in sworn affidavits that the “Noogada” award was handed out annually to the member who exhibited the worst personal hygiene “or feral behaviour” at the group’s fancy dress Christmas party, with the winner being presented with an “improvised weapon” that had been seized during riots at Wadeye, but insisted there was nothing racist about the award.
Calls for Labor Minister Brent Potter’s resignation mounted Wednesday following revelations in the NT Independent that he privately purchased shares in the government-backed $1.8 billion Seafarms major prawn harvesting project while a senior adviser to the minister responsible, which critics called the latest “appalling” example of the severe lack of integrity surrounding the current government.
Starting today, tourists and Territorians can take advantage of a 25 per cent discount on various tourism and hospitality packages across the NT between February 29 and April 30, for travel until the end of April this year, the government announced, but failed to say how much it will cost.
Two men were arrested by the Tactical Response Group and Serious Crime Squad members last week in connection to the stabbing of a man last month that police had not told the public about, citing unspecified “operational reasons”.
EXCLUSIVE: Labor Minister Brent Potter privately purchased shares in an NT Government-backed “major project” while employed as a senior adviser to the minister responsible for the project in 2021, which a leading integrity expert said was “just wrong” and raised serious concerns about the potential use of sensitive government information for personal financial interests.
