Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has confirmed her senior adviser with ties to the gas industry is being paid taxpayer money to help her win the next Territory election through a murky contract, but claims “no rules have been broken”, while party members have called for a change of leadership to clean up the Territory Labor Party, following the scandals and recent polling that shows Labor losing the next election.
Offenders who commit crimes in Darwin and other urban centres can choose to be sentenced in their home remote community, as part of a new “community court sentencing” program implemented by the Fyles Government earlier this month, that sources say will silence victims, cut prosecutors out of the sentencing process and reduce the public’s awareness of how offenders are dealt with by the courts.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles and her senior adviser have been referred for investigation into possible criminal conduct, including allegedly “advancing secret personal interests” and other potential offences, in relation to her senior adviser’s consultancy company acting as the registered lobbyist for Tamboran Resources and Ms Fyles’ breaches of the ministerial code of conduct for not immediately divesting her shares in another gas company.
EDITORIAL: It is “absolutely appropriate” Nicole Manison told Territorians this week for the Chief Minister’s most senior adviser to also run a company that lobbies for the gas industry, and in so doing, proved just how corrupt, incompetent and morally compromised this government is.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’ office has defended senior political adviser Gerard Richardson’s dual roles as adviser to the NT Labor Government and co-owner of a company that lobbies for Tamboran Resources, which the Federal Greens have called “outrageous and alarming”.
A federal independent MP has called for a full investigation into Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’ office following revelations her senior political adviser’s consultancy firm is the registered lobbyist for Tamboran Resources, while the NT Independent can reveal more details about the extent of his firm’s influence in potentially securing federal funding for the controversial Middle Arm industrial precinct.
EXCLUSIVE: Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’ most senior political adviser’s consultancy firm is the registered lobbyist for a national gas company that the NT Government approved to frack the Beetaloo Basin and develop a massive Middle Arm LNG project, federal records show, raising further serious conflict of interest concerns involving the NT Government’s gas policies, the NT Independent can reveal.
EDITORIAL: The Opposition CLP has failed to do its job this week in Parliament, which won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been observing NT politics for any amount of time, but their latest failure raises troubling questions about our democratic institutions and who is actually protecting and defending them.
The Fyles Labor Government attacked their own Speaker on Wednesday afternoon after he threw Treasurer Eva Lawler out of the chamber for belligerence, in an unusual scene from the floor of Parliament that followed comments about drinking high-priced Veuve Clicquot champagne and “being out of touch” with Territorians.
Territory Labor’s support has plummeted to new lows that would see it lose power if the election were held today, a new independent poll shows, with only 19.7 per cent of Territorians polled saying they would support the scandal-plagued Fyles Government.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles failed to publicly disclose on her parliamentary register a potential conflict of interest involving her husband working for a major health provider that has reportedly been paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars by the NT Government, an independent MLA says.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has followed her predecessor and fled from the NT Independent at a press conference Wednesday morning, leaving in the government SUV so quickly that her media adviser was left standing in the road.
