A government-backed initiative that aims to get vacant commercial buildings in the Darwin CBD repurposed for student accommodation or to serve as hostels, has been given a two-year timeframe by the CLP Government, but it remains unclear how popular the plan is with local developers and landowners.
The NT Opposition has called for the appointment of David Connolly as the next Administrator to be “put on hold and reviewed”, writing to the Governor-General over the weekend to seek “further advice” following revelations of his offensive social media comments, while Mr Connolly issued a statement on Monday claiming that he did not mean to “cause offence”, but stopped short of apologising to Indigenous Territorians for his repeated online ridicule.
The Finocchiaro Government has spent $8.1 million converting part of Holtze Prison into a standalone women’s section, but has still not disclosed the overall cost of its five-year prison master plan, as inmate numbers continue to rise to just 50 prisoners below the capacity the government said it would be able to house by 2028.
EXCLUSIVE: The CLP’s new NT Administrator David Connolly wrote on a social media post about Aboriginal people that “you cannot convince me they are doing good for the country” and in another post claimed that based on a dictionary definition “I am Indigenous to Australia”, while also mocking Welcome to Country ceremonies, a cache of now deleted X posts obtained by the NT Independent reveal.
NT WorkSafe has issued a safety alert following an incident at the Darwin Civic Centre construction site, where an excavator bucket injured a 50-year-old worker last week, while the City and contractor DCOH said they are cooperating with authorities.
The NT Electoral Commission has this week started sending failure to vote notices to 38,553 Territorians who “appear not to have voted” in the 2025 local government elections, that saw the lowest voter turnout on record at only 55.8 per cent.
Severe performance failures in the NT’s healthcare system have been labelled “deeply disappointing”, with the failure to meet national service delivery targets raising serious concerns about the state of healthcare in the Territory.
Two men have been arrested at an industrial yard in Woolner for their alleged role in dozens of thefts and burglaries across the Darwin and Palmerston region since last November, with NT Police recovering “a large quantity” of stolen property they want to reunite with owners. SEE THE PICTURES
Attendance rates at Northern Territory schools in 2025 dropped by half a per cent on 2024 despite the introduction of truancy officers in November of that year. Education Minister Jo Hersey said today she was doubling down on her government’s plan to get kids to school and hold parents accountable for non-attendance, but did not directly reference the marginal decline.
The Travelling Film Festival will return to Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs next month with exclusive screenings of Golden Globe nominees and winners from prestigious events, including the Venice, Cannes, Berlin, and Sydney film festivals.
Nearly a kilogram and a half of cannabis was seized from a property in Galiwinku on Wednesday after a tip-off that the marijuana arrived in town by boat, NT Police said.
The Finocchiaro Government does not support Territorians paying for a gun buyback scheme and has rejected any centrally imposed policy mandate about firearms ownership, but the Albanese Government is planning to introduce legislation under which states and territories can use a background and identity check system based on federal criminal agency intelligence before someone is issued with a gun licence.
