Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has finally told Police Commissioner Michael Murphy to resign, stating he has “lost the confidence of the Government”, but it appears he has been placed on leave while his contract is terminated, according to an unusual Saturday night statement from her office.
ANALYSIS: The Chief Minister’s handling of the ongoing Murphy scandal undermines the confidence every Territorian needs to have in its highest elected official and in its police commissioner, raising serious questions about her lack of action. The cover-up is always worse than the crime, as this debacle proves again.
Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Kennon, whose promotion was at the centre of the recent ICAC investigation, went from a Superintendent to Acting Deputy Commissioner in roughly 18-months after his close friend Michael Murphy, who had been his best man, became Police Commissioner, sources have told the NT Independent.
The NT Police Association has called for Police Commissioner Michael Murphy to resign, following revelations he engaged in misconduct and failed to manage a serious conflict of interest by hiring a mate for a senior role, which has “ignited widespread frustration and anger” within the police rank-and-file, who are once again questioning the integrity of their leadership.
Police Commissioner Michael Murphy is the “senior public officer” the ICAC found engaged in improper conduct by hiring a mate for a senior role in the NT Police, but he has refused to resign, despite the findings that his actions amounted to “negligence and incompetence”.
Mayors and councillors across the Territory will receive a four per cent pay increase later this year, including Darwin Mayor Kon Vatskalis who will see the biggest increase, with every local councillor seeing their allowances increased by several thousand dollars.
An NT prisons contract awarded to a private security company the Corrections Minister’s adviser previously worked for was handled independently of his office, the Minister has said, but he has refused to say how much it will cost taxpayers, while a privacy law expert said it was only in “extreme circumstances” that governments should hide the cost of contracts, with this contract not meeting the threshold.
Not a single Country Liberal Party MLA has moved to call out improper conduct at the highest levels of the public service and their government’s failure to take action on an ICAC report that found the head of a major agency engaged in “negligence and incompetence” by appointing a friend to a job – with the silence particularly deafening from the party’s ministerial team, who are obligated to uphold the “highest standards of integrity” and “ensure public confidence” in government.
Three females, one as young as 14, have been arrested for allegedly assaulting and robbing a 101-year-old man in a mobility scooter on Mitchell Street last night, NT Police said.
Planning Minister Joshua Burgoyne has defunded volunteer community group the Planning Action Network, declaring the provisions of the planning legislation, which he recently weakened by removing third party reviews from, were robust and that there was already sufficient public consultation.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government will lobby the Federal Labor Government this week to secure a commitment on the Darwin Port amid solvency issues with Chinese-owned company Landbridge, but the Chief Minister would not say if leasing the nationally strategic asset to China in 2015 was a mistake made by her previous CLP government.
An independent MLA says she will publicly name the “senior public officer” who an ICAC investigation found engaged in “negligence and incompetence” concerning a hiring process in his department when Parliament resumes, while Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro stormed out of a press conference Tuesday morning after facing questions about her lack of action.
