EXCLUSIVE: Thoroughbred Racing NT chairman Brett Dixon and deputy chair Syd Stirling charged taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars to attend the peak racing body’s board meetings – which are arranged to coincide with different racing events across the NT – including costs for accommodation, hospitality and flights, the NT Independent can reveal.
Executive public servant Shaun Drabsch – who was found by the ICAC to have engaged in “deceptive” conduct involving the $12 million grandstand grant – will not be sacked by Chief Minister Michael Gunner because that conduct is two years old “when he first took up the role”, the Chief Minister says.
A second Minister has confirmed Chief Minister Michael Gunner rushed the $12 million Darwin Turf Club grandstand grant through Cabinet himself and that the senior public servant who failed to warn Cabinet of the submission’s lack of details is now, remarkably, in charge of implementing the ICAC’s recommendations.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner has not taken any action against senior public servant Shaun Drabsch, who the ICAC found engaged in “deceptive” conduct with former Labor powerbroker Alf Leonardi to ensure the $12 million publicly-funded Darwin Turf Club grandstand project was awarded a taxpayer grant.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s former chief of staff Alf Leonardi was only “following instructions” while playing a key role in the Darwin Turf Club grandstand scandal, he told the ICAC, raising new questions about the Chief Minister’s involvement.
Federal Labor Member for Solomon Luke Gosling was targeted by the Turf Club board as a key Labor figure to lobby for projects, the ICAC report found, with internal records showing he attended numerous Turf Club events in 2018, while chairman Brett Dixon was discussing potential “new developments” with senior party figures.
Darwin Turf Club chairman Brett Dixon wrote a “draft script” for popular radio presenter Katie Woolf three weeks before he was interviewed by her “that included Mr Dixon’s views and response to negative media stories” regarding the controversial $12 million grandstand project, the ICAC’s report into the scandal has revealed.
Long-serving NT News editor Matt Williams is the mysterious “senior media figure” identified in the ICAC’s grandstand scandal investigation, sources have confirmed, who allegedly used the Territory’s only daily newspaper to provide favourable media coverage for those accused of the alleged misuse of public funds.
EXCLUSIVE: Chief Minister Michael Gunner convinced Cabinet to approve $12 million of taxpayer money for the Darwin Turf Club by taking the decision “out of certain people’s hands”, a Turf Club board member and friend of Mr Gunner’s told the board just days after the grant was approved, recordings from the meeting reveal.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner and his Cabinet colleagues approved the $12 million taxpayer grant to the Darwin Turf Club one day after receiving an “official” grant application that contained sparse details of economic benefits for the NT and while the government was in the throes of a financial crisis, the ICAC’s damning investigation has revealed.
The CLP Opposition’s calls for a “detailed parliamentary review” into the ICAC Act, rather than the one currently being conducted behind closed doors by a hand-picked public servant, has been shot down by the Gunner Government in Parliament today in what the Opposition labelled a “shocking display of dictatorship”.
ICAC has released its explosive report in the Gunner Government’s $12 million grant for the Darwin Turf Club grandstand. Here is the chronology of events.
