Two CLP branch chairs representing party members in Darwin’s northern suburbs have written to the Chief Minister calling for the “unnecessarily restrictive” voluntary assisted dying legislation to be altered to remove the doctor “gag clause” and the 12-month prognosis timeframe before it is passed next week in Parliament, while the government has still not explained why it added the conditions.
UPDATED: The Finocchiaro CLP Government will build a new 1,200-bed private prison at Holtze that is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and will be operated by a private company for profit, with critics labelling the move “reckless” and “a failure of crime prevention and community safety”.
Caravan and Camping SANT will host its inaugural Northern Territory Caravan, Camping & Outdoor Show at the Darwin Turf Club from tomorrow.
A large group of males armed with various weapons were discovered concealing themselves in bushland Sunday afternoon as they approached the community of Wadeye, NT Police said, with the group allegedly attacking officers with rocks, window louvres and at one point an arrow was allegedly shot at police when officers attempted to disperse them.
The ongoing Code Yellow crisis at Royal Darwin and Palmerston hospitals shows a significant failure in the health system with conditions on the verge of a “health disaster”, the union representing the NT’s nurses and midwives says, which was met with a statement from the acting head of NT Health thanking Territorians for their “patience” and pledging to throw “all of our resources and energy” into alleviating the current situation.
The highly contagious H5N1 strain of bird flu is expected to reach the Northern Territory soon, the Environment Department has said, with staff sampling faeces and water supplies to identify contamination.
The Finocchiaro Government has formed a committee to oversee the buy-back of commercial barramundi fishing licences, with the industry welcoming the independent body but calling for alternative fishing methods so locally caught wild barramundi can continue to be sold in restaurants.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government has moved to fill two independent statutory roles with one temporary acting commissioner, after the Children’s Commissioner resigned in disgust with the government’s policies last month and the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner’s contract was not renewed following his public criticism of the government.
A 27-year-old Alice Springs man has been arrested and charged for allegedly targeting women with thousands of sexually threatening phone calls, NT Police said, while urging more victims to contact them.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro says Darwin council has the money to undertake this year’s pre-cyclone clean-up collection service and has “failed its constituency” by cancelling it, adding councillors should be made to answer to voters for their “questionable decision”, while the City of Palmerston is moving ahead with its clean-up.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government will not hold full and independent investigations into Charles Darwin University and the Batchelor Institute following recent scandals at both institutions that saw millions in public funds wasted and has instead pledged to “get better outcomes” for apprentices and trainees by implementing key performance indicators at the institutions.
NT Business and Asian Relations Minister Robyn Cahill will lead a delegation to Vietnam this week with representatives from numerous local education providers including CDU, Alana Kaye College and Haileybury Rendall School, which she said will “strengthen ties” with the one-party authoritarian state and comes the same day the Vietnamese president was in Canberra to strengthen economic ties with the Commonwealth.
