The NT Opposition has called for the appointment of David Connolly as the next Administrator to be “put on hold and reviewed”, writing to the Governor-General over the weekend to seek “further advice” following revelations of his offensive social media comments, while Mr Connolly issued a statement on Monday claiming that he did not mean to “cause offence”, but stopped short of apologising to Indigenous Territorians for his repeated online ridicule.
EXCLUSIVE: The CLP’s new NT Administrator David Connolly wrote on a social media post about Aboriginal people that “you cannot convince me they are doing good for the country” and in another post claimed that based on a dictionary definition “I am Indigenous to Australia”, while also mocking Welcome to Country ceremonies, a cache of now deleted X posts obtained by the NT Independent reveal.
Attendance rates at Northern Territory schools in 2025 dropped by half a per cent on 2024 despite the introduction of truancy officers in November of that year. Education Minister Jo Hersey said today she was doubling down on her government’s plan to get kids to school and hold parents accountable for non-attendance, but did not directly reference the marginal decline.
It’s that time of year again to reflect on the wacky and wonderful stories that made news this year, and in most cases, crucial stories and issues that would never have come to light had the NT Independent not existed. FREE TO READ.
New political donation disclosures have revealed who funded local councillors’ election campaigns with a few surprises, including one mayoral candidate raking in more than $50,000 in donations – including money from a Chinese business executive connected to the Landbridge Group – while the other Darwin mayoral candidate claimed no donations at all; meanwhile a disgraced former Labor powerbroker appeared more times than any other donor on different lists and one councillor had a former chief minister’s father kick in for his successful run.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government has passed legislative amendments to block the public’s right to access documents that would reveal the reasoning behind ministerial decisions, which it said was necessary to protect former Labor mines minister and current Tamboran Resources executive Nicole Manison’s emails from being made public as part of an ongoing court case.
The Territory’s politicians have once again been gifted a pay rise amid record debt, with their salaries now increased by $5,000 – which follows last year’s generous $8,200 pay rise – which works out to an eight per cent increase, while the government is currently offering public servants an annual three per cent pay increase.
UPDATED: The Finocchiaro CLP Government’s legislation to roll the ICAC and Ombudsman offices into a new Integrity and Ethics Commission has been roundly rejected by multiple national and international integrity experts as weakening independent oversight and creating potential “political interference” in the new commission, with the Centre for Public Integrity recommending the bill be withdrawn and sent back for review to ensure the NT’s “broken integrity system” is fixed properly.
EDITORIAL: We simply cannot afford to build a billion dollar Ship Lift facility for a bunch of billionaires to profit from while the rest of us pay for it over the next 50 years – when will Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro stand up for Territorians and shirtfront the Paspaley Group over this?
UPDATED: Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro claims the Prime Minister is “mucking us around” over her choice for the next administrator of the Northern Territory by not approving it for five months, while current Administrator Hugh Heggie has commenced “a series of farewell visits” and “parades” across the Territory and interstate ahead of his term ending on January 30.
Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has moved to change Freedom of Information laws to block correspondence between ministers and their staff ever being made public, which will effectively end a legal challenge seeking a former Territory Labor minister’s correspondence, in a move Ms Boothby claims is somehow “strengthening integrity”, while a national integrity expert says it removes a “cornerstone of accountability”.
UPDATED: NT Greens Member for Nightcliff Kat McNamara was referred on urgency to Parliament’s disciplinary body last night by the CLP Government for hosting a “casual information session” in her electorate office, that the CLP allege was a misuse of her taxpayer-funded office and part of a plot to recruit new Greens members.
