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.
Alice Springs Town Council has launched the ‘myTodd Mall’ buy-local voucher program to support small businesses and attract customers amid ongoing construction disruptions that will see customers earn vouchers depending on how much they spend at participating businesses.
Claravale Station owners were allegedly told by Environment Department staff that the NT Environment Protection Agency did not want to see land clearing applications for assessment and were advised to avoid triggering a referral to the supposedly independent watchdog, according to documents obtained under freedom of information laws, but the department has denied its staff provided that advice and said they instead gave instructions about how to adhere to the legislation.
NT Police are calling for anyone in Katherine with video of last Thursday’s dangerous driving incident that saw up to seven youths tear around town in a stolen vehicle to contact them, as police seek to “actively identify and locate the remaining youths involved” after arresting two youths over the weekend.
Darwin Council has scrapped its annual pre-cyclone clean-up collection service this year which it says is due to “significant operational impacts of Cyclone Fina” that hit the city last November, with Mayor Peter Styles telling residents to rent trailers or call a “mate with a ute” to take their own hard waste to the tip this year.
All households in the NT are being urged to complete and submit their census forms in advance of Census night on Tuesday, August 11, the Australian Bureau of Statistics says, with daily fines of $364 issued for repeated noncompliance.
EDITORIAL: We heard the Chief Minister and the Police Commissioner loud and clear when they said any assertion the police would be politically motivated while investigating the Gosling-Connolly spectacle was “insulting”. Our response is, frankly, we don’t care how you want to take it or if it hurts your feelings, history has shown us you need to bring in independent oversight of this wacky investigation in the best interests of the Northern Territory.
A 49-year-old Alice Springs man has been charged with manslaughter for his alleged role in a fatal road incident that saw a male pedestrian killed by a vehicle in Darwin in February 2024, but the man charged was not driving the vehicle, NT Police said.
Northern Territory data centres will have to use renewable energy as their primary source of power or will not proceed, Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Wednesday, adding natural gas will only be used as a backup and that he will invoke all Federal Government powers available to enforce the new rules.
EXCLUSIVE: Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Pat Williams identified a “perceived conflict of interest” that has led him to refer the Administrator assault case against Federal Labor MP Luke Gosling to an outside jurisdiction for oversight, while questions remain over the NT Police appearing to be currently running both the investigation and prosecution against the Federal Member of Parliament with no independent direction.
Japanese gas company Inpex has been charged by the NT Environmental Protection Authority over alleged under-reporting of emissions from its Ichthys LNG facility in Darwin, which an independent review found had been “systematically underestimated”.
