The Federal Infrastructure Minister has responded to her Territory counterpart’s ultimatum on the proposed Alice Springs Aboriginal art gallery, which she suggested may have been political posturing by the CLP to blame the Commonwealth for its desire to bin the project outright, describing Bill Yan’s demand that the feds approve variations by yesterday as “a pretty weird way of trying to work with the Commonwealth”.
Two youths who allegedly carjacked a man at knifepoint at a Wishart service station early Wednesday morning, used the stolen Toyota Yaris to later ram the gate of a home in Malak, NT Police said, before eventually turning the vehicle on police during a pursuit.
Education Minister Jo Hersey not only took a white car chauffeur service to Casuarina as she claimed on Monday, but also used the VIP car service to attend the casino, a Darwin Greek restaurant, a health clinic and the botanic gardens in a two-month span, newly reported government records revealed by ABC Darwin show, with the Minister now claiming all the trips were “work trips”.
The Northern Territory’s heavily conflicted and “useless” regulatory authority that oversees Australia’s $50 billion online gambling industry was exposed on ABC’s Four Corners program Monday night, which featured NT Racing and Wagering Commission chair Alastair Shields fleeing media questions in an old Mercedes that initially wouldn’t start during a hasty getaway.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has failed to front the public following the release of the damning Justice Alan Blow review into NT Police senior employment practices, issuing a statement to claim she will accept the report’s six recommendations, but making no mention of why she failed to set it up as a proper inquiry, which the NT Police Association said fell “well short of what was expected”.
The Darwin ship lift project, initiated by the Giles CLP government in 2015, has seen the cost to complete the project increase to an estimated $820 million now, with the real possibility it could be over $1 billion by the time it’s completed, while a leading economist has raised financial management concerns.
A 79-year-old German national who was part of a tour group at Nitmiluk National Park was found dead after leaving camp on foot on Monday morning and failing to return, NT Police said.
Two Northern Territory Government departments have refused to explain the contradictions contained in an internal government report into a breach of fracking legislation by Empire Energy – now called Beetaloo Energy Australia – which involved one department sending a letter to “encourage behaviour change” after considering prosecution of the matter, while the other considered the company had done nothing wrong but still took action “to ensure it does not happen again”.
The CLP Government has ordered a three-day “visibility operation” across the Darwin bus network aimed at cracking down on ‘anti-social behaviour’ at “known hot spots and problematic bus routes”, but critics say it’s another “intimidation tactic” targeting vulnerable people.
Education Minister Jo Hersey has become the first CLP minister to admit using the taxpayer-funded white car chauffeur service for a personal trip, raising the prospect of other potential misuse by ministers, but claims she received advice from a body that has nothing to do with the car service that her personal trip to Casuarina was “within the guidelines”, even if “it doesn’t probably float with the public”.
The NT Fire and Rescue Service’s Special Operations Command is ramping up its preparations for natural disasters this wet season by focusing on critical specialised training, including deploying rapid temporary shelters in preparation for use in remote and regional areas and operating drones to survey disaster zones.
The CLP Government says it will put parents of students who consistently fail to attend school under income management, with critics arguing reinstating the old policy will cause more problems, while questions have also been raised about how the NT Government will enforce the policy and whether the Federal Government was involved in its development.
