This is the third instalment in a series by Dr Don Fuller looking at the major governance failures in the Northern Territory: the moral and integrity failures of politicians and government, the politicisation of, and the resultant instability in, the public service and the police, and the unfair and unjust treatment of lower level employees in the public service and police compared to the more powerful members.

READ: Opinion: The Failed State Part I – The NT ruled like a town council and the missing $800 million

READ: Failed State Part II – The ethical failures of politicians and senior public servants

In the Northern Territory we have seen examples of ministerial staff sitting on selection panels for public service positions, a department chief executive officer keeping his job after a judge found he inflicted a mental health injury on an employee, and allegations of a Police Commissioner being influenced by politicians to lay a murder charge against a police officer.

Politicians in the NT use the complicity of the senior levels of the public service as an extension of their personal and political staff, and to act in the interest of furthering their own power, often at the expense of the wider population of the NT.

This is because the foundation of a merit-based public service with security of tenure has been demolished in the NT, with many executives on time-limited contracts and needing to please the minister to get a new contract. This means major policy decisions often occur for narrow, politically partisan reasons rather than policy formulated to benefit the NT’s citizens.

Rather than providing frank and fearless advice, senior public servants have been reduced to running political errands for their political masters. This is a major attack on the ability of a Westminster system of democratic government to operate effectively in the Territory.

Politicisation generally refers to breaches of the boundary between the political and administrative branches of government in a way that compromises the political neutrality of the public sector and the police force.

Politicisation can happen in different ways. A clear breach occurs when there is inappropriate ministerial intrusion into public sector hiring.

A more subtle example is when the professionalism of the public sector slips, and it is no longer willing or able to provide frank and impartial advice to the government of the day.

There will always be a creative tension between an unelected bureaucracy adhering to public sector values, and an elected government eager to deliver on its election promises. That creative tension is a feature and strength of the Westminster system of governance. It is not meant to be demolished by senior politicians.

However, good governance relies on the observance of boundaries, which either are, or are in danger of, being crossed.

Various practices have been adopted in an attempt to reinforce the Westminster tradition.

One is that public officers are appointed on merit and can generally only be removed with good cause and due process.

Both of these areas have become major areas of concern in the NT public service, as will be discussed via disturbing examples later.

To assist the establishment and operation of a fair and just public service, the values and professionalism of the public sector should be monitored by an independent commission.

However, the role of the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment has been severely eroded since self-government in 1978.

The benefits of the Westminster model

The Westminster model sustains democracy by reassuring the community that the elected government will be properly and ethically supported by the public sector.

It promotes high quality policy development and public administration by ensuring advice to the political branch of government is frank and impartial, and that decision-making is principled and evidence-based.

Such values help build a superior public sector that can attract and retain high quality employees seeking a secure, professional and rewarding career.

Largely because these important principles have not been observed in the NT by successive governments, the overall quality of the public sector has been badly affected and the public service has increasing difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified, high-quality employees.

In Australia, the importance of respecting and adhering to the Westminster tradition has been repeatedly stressed by successive independent reviews.

These reviews have cautioned against adopting a ‘Washminster’ system – a hybrid of the Westminster and United States of America models – where agency heads routinely change with the government, and public sector employees are openly aligned with political parties.

These warnings recognise the Westminster tradition has continued to change, with elected governments able to seek alternative sources of advice and increase the number of ministerial support staff.

Examples of this occurred with the election of the new CLP Finocchiaro Government.

Examples of politicisation of the public service

There have been many examples of political interference in a merit-based public service and police force in the Territory, which has been a feature of both sides of politics since self-government.

This has not stopped either side from heavily criticising the other for such breaches, before doing the same thing themselves.

For example in June 2014, then Opposition spokesperson for public employment Natasha Fyles said revelations then-chief minister Adam Giles’s personal ministerial staff were sitting on selection panels for public service positions was an outrageous attack on the independence of the NT public service.

“This disgraceful attack on the independence of our public service is a new low – even for this CLP Government,” Ms Fyles said to the media.

“Direct involvement of the Chief Minister’s personal staff in the recruitment process contravenes the spirit and the express provisions of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act.

“We have genuine concerns that this level of interference in the public service by political staffers sends a worrying message that frank and fearless advice is not welcome.

“This admission by Adam Giles should be immediately investigated by the Public Service Commissioner – the independence of the Northern Territory public service is at stake.

“How can Territorians have any confidence that public servants are employed on merit when positions are being determined with political interference?”

When the Finocchiaro Government came to power last year, Sky News reported widespread changes to NT Government departments were announced just moments after Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s Cabinet was officially sworn in.

“We are determined to lead a government which is effective, coordinated and focused on the priorities of Territorians,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

“A strong public service is vital in delivering the changes the Northern Territory and its people need. Public sector jobs are safe.”

Health Department chief executive officer Dr Marco Briceno and Education Department CEO Karen Weston lost their jobs, while Alistair Trier, who had been heading the government’s gas taskforce, was made the new boss of the Mines and Energy Department.

Samantha Livesley, the daughter of CLP stalwart Suzanne Cavanagh, was made the CEO of the People, Sport and Culture Department.

Infrastructure Commissioner Louise McCormack was promoted to be the CEO of the Infrastructure Department, replacing Andrew Kirkman.

In August, a judge had found that Mr Kirkman had inflicted a mental health injury on a female staffer and was referred for investigation by the Commissioner for Public Employment for his actions.

He was not sacked by the Lawler Labor Government, and the CLP moved him to the Agriculture and Fisheries Department.

The under treasurer Craig Graham was moved to a “strategic advisory role” to support the development of the controversial Middle Arm industrial precinct, and was replaced by assistant under treasurer Tim McManus.

Mr McManus is a Darwin Waterfront Corporation board member, who previously worked with Ms Finocchiaro’s husband Sam Burke, who is the deputy chief executive of the DWC. Mr Burke had been a chief of staff for a Minister in the Giles Government and got his DWC job about nine months before that government lost the 2016 landslide election.

He now makes about $300,000 in this “deputy” executive role for a job that was not publicly recruited when his previous contract ended, and apparently not subject to independent public service assessment processes. This while according to annual reports, DWC board costs have skyrocketed since 2014. The CLP started this gravy train by appointing Graeme Lewis as chair in 2013. Labor continued with their own appointments during their eight years in office.

Patrick Bellot, a local real estate agent and the husband of Mix 104.9 radio personality Katie Woolf, was appointed chair of the DWC in December through a mysterious hiring process that also does not appear to have been publicly advertised.

The NT Independent has run a series of investigative articles on DWC, exposing the serious undisclosed conflicts of interests, along with nepotism, cronyism, possible misuse of public funds, and various other allegations of serious maladministration and possible misconduct linked back to those who held the most senior roles in the NTPS.

This masthead also wrote an editorial with the title: Darwin Waterfront scandal goes to the heart of the Northern Territory’s sickness.

This public interest reporting provides excellent examples of how the political wing of the CLP moved to dominate the public service, actively severing any independence and accountability between public service CEOs and the Chief Minister.

It also shows how nepotism and cronyism can be integral to the corruption of the independence of the public service.

Special new powers for a politicised public service role

In October last year, a leaked discussion paper, which was tabled in Parliament, first revealed the Finocchiaro Government’s plans to grant extraordinary new powers to an unaccountable bureaucrat holding the title of ‘Territory Coordinator’, as mentioned earlier in the series under examples of bad governance.

The government named former Inpex NT general manager and former low-ranking public servant Stuart Knowles as the interim Territory Coordinator, on the same day it publicly released its proposed legislation that would give the position, as well as the Chief Minister, sweeping powers to exempt certain projects from environmental and other regulatory processes.

The enabling legislation passed through Parliament on March 19, with Mr Knowles recently announced as the permanent Coordinator on a four-year contract, with his salary kept secret.

The changes give the Territory Coordinator and the Chief Minister the power to override 32 acts of Parliament. They also have the power to declare ‘Territory Development Areas’. This particular invention seems to facilitate the proposed gas-fuelled petrochemical and hydrogen area on the Elizabeth River mentioned earlier in the series, which is also known as the Middle Arm industrial precinct.

The four Aboriginal land councils called on the changes to legislation to be scrapped because they say development areas can be declared on Aboriginal land without consulting traditional owners.

Meanwhile the Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory lead convenor John Paterson said the Territory Coordinator position provides “unprecedented power that contradicts commitments the Northern Territory Government have signed up to under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap”.

Ms Finocchiaro has said 2025 is about “action, certainty, and security” and on top of the new powers’ ability to accelerate the development of the Middle Arm industrial precinct, these same powers are likely to be extended to offering similar “confidence and certainty” to gas fracking pipelines from the Beetaloo Basin.

The legislation to create the Territory Coordinator position has been criticised as an overreach of power and anti-democratic, with Ms Finocchiaro claiming the “independent” statutory officer would streamline coordination of significant projects, while “enhancing the Territory’s economic competitiveness.”

The Labor Opposition said they also remained concerned about the “unprecedented powers” provided by the legislation.

“This plan will potentially allow ministers or the Territory Coordinator to bend or sidestep laws that provide important safeguards when it comes to project approvals,” Opposition Deputy Leader Dheran Young said.

The extraordinary banning of the free press

Another gross violation of a major democratic tradition by the NT Government was that of corruption of the freedom of the press that compromised the independence of the arms of government, which occurred through the black banning of the NT Independent, mentioned in an earlier part of this series.

The black ban was implemented by then-Labor chief minister Michael Gunner soon after the NT Independent was established in March 2020.

This ban ran until the NT Independent’s investigations led directly to the fall of Natasha Fyles as Chief Minister in late December 2023. It is also likely that the reporting of the NT Independent on the election travel rorts of Mr Gunner, which led to an investigation by the Office of Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, also made his position as chief minister untenable.

It not only stopped the paper’s journalists from asking questions of ministers, and seeking information from their offices, but also from asking questions of departments and many of the agencies.

In June 2021, Mr Gunner prevented the Opposition from questioning head public servant Jodie Ryan at Estimates hearings over why the apolitical public service appeared to be carrying out a political directive not to respond to the NT Independent.

Mr Gunner denied he had given a directive to the public service not to respond to the paper but would not let Ms Ryan answer the question.

The illegal and unconstitutional move drew condemnation, including from peak journalism bodies in Australia and overseas, and was unanimously denounced in the Australian Senate, including by Mr Gunner’s own federal Labor Party.

The Legislative Assembly’s Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards Act requires MLAs to respect and “foster freedom of reporting by the media”.

In February 2021, independent MLA Robyn Lambley attempted to refer Mr Gunner to the NT Parliament’s disciplinary committee for “unfair and unethical” conduct by banning the publication in direct contravention of the code of conduct legislation. However, the government prevented debate on the issue.

This reflects a major on-going problem and is a lamentable and widely-embarrassing example of how NT governments use all means possible to prevent accountability for their actions.

Despite the many things NT politicians have done as detailed in this series, there have been very few politicians referred to the Privileges Committee, with the committee’s own website showing reports on three referrals since 2001.

The most recent was former Labor MLA Mark Turner in 2021 for allegedly lying to Parliament; however, in a report on the matter by committee chair Ms Fyles, the committee inexplicably “decided to discontinue its inquiry” and that the “allegations do not warrant further consideration”.

The committee did not call witnesses, and did not examine any evidence into the allegations of misleading Parliament.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, constitutional law experts, the Alliance for Journalists Freedom, the ABC’s Media Watch program, and others had all called for the ban on the NT Independent to be lifted and for the Labor Government under both Mr Gunner and Ms Fyles to respect basic democratic principles and the independence of the public service.

The AJF director Chris Flynn said the blacklisting appeared to be based on personal relationships, rather than concerns about the journalism practiced by the outlet.

“We can’t imagine any Australian government — state or federal — would knowingly restrict press freedom. News publishers should not be denied access or contact with governments because of personal issues,” Mr Flynn said.

News outlet Crikey wrote an editorial stating political leaders who announce they don’t “recognise” a news publication as “an independent or reputable media outlet”, and cut off that outlet from government information, usually have names like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping or Viktor Orbán.

As a serious extension of attempts to muzzle the press, the police initiated an investigation into the possibility of charging the NT Independent for publishing a news article about a toddler who had been sexually assaulted in their front yard through a fence, by a man in the street.

The police had failed to notify the public about the horrendous incident, with that report sparking another special investigative series exposing the police media unit’s ongoing suppression of serious sex crimes being committed against Territorians, including another disturbing story about a registered sex offender being found outside a child’s bedroom with a ‘rape kit’, a woman being raped in the street and other serious sexual offences from Alice Springs to Darwin.

NT Police filed an application with the Australian Classification Board to have the initial story classified as “restricted content” without having to provide an explanation.

This, according to NT Independent legal sources, would have given the police the power under Territory legislation to execute arrests, obtain computers and raid offices under the auspices of upholding the Classification of Publications, Films and Computer Games Act NT 1985.

A breach of the Act carries a two-year jail term.

However the federal Classification Board executed its job properly by rejecting the police’s secret allegations and the NT Independent was later recognised for Best Crime Reporting at the NT Media Awards that year for its reporting on the suppressed crimes, which the national judges called an “extraordinary series of reports” which exposed the police’s failures to properly inform the public.

Politicisation of NT Police

A survey of the Northern Territory Police Association membership in 2020 revealed many officers held concerns regarding government interference in police matters and didn’t feel the government was supporting officers enough.

Strong themes throughout the survey included the perceived lack of separation of powers, with 87 per cent of respondents believing the NT Government interfered in operational matters.

This led to a vote of no confidence in then-police commissioner Jamie Chalker.

Mr Chalker was deeply unpopular, partly because of a perception of political interference in the murder charge laid against then-constable Zach Rolfe (who was mentioned earlier in the series), which occurred at great speed, four days after the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu during a bungled arrest in November 2019.

In March 2022, Mr Rolfe was found not guilty of murder and was also cleared of two alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death.

Allegations had circulated that chief minister Gunner and deputy chief minister Nicole Manison had influenced Mr Chalker into the rushed decision to charge Mr Rolfe with murder.

The ICAC Michael Riches investigated, but found there was no improper conduct by Mr Gunner or Ms Manison.

The duo had shared a plane with Mr Chalker from Darwin to Yuendumu in the days after the shooting, but Mr Riches said they told him they had not talked about the police investigation at all.

Instead of examining that further, the main focus of Mr Riches’s investigation was on the now infamous comments by Mr Gunner in the community on that trip that there would be an “investigation” into the police shooting, and that “consequences will flow as a result of that investigation”.

Riches said this was a “central feature” of allegations of political interference, however that was not really the case. Another alleged meeting between the police commissioner and Mr Gunner and Ms Mansion had occurred, which Mr Riches dedicated nine sentences to at the end of his report, concluding there was no substance to it, seemingly on the basis of asking two police officers who were alleged to have been there.

At least five detectives wrote in their diary notes, which were presented at the Walker coronial inquest, that they were worried about the haste to press charges and the fact they “provided an unfinished brief of evidence” to then-Director of Public Prosecutions Jack Karczewski, who took just 90 minutes to recommend a murder charge.

Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Grieves’ notes, written roughly 90 minutes after a meeting Mr Chalker had with other police executives – some of whom had just returned from the DPP meeting – said the decision for the arrest and murder charge came from the “top level of police” before specifically mentioning the police commissioner.

However Mr Chalker told media he did not know why Mr Rolfe was charged so quickly because the investigation was done at “arm’s length” from him, and that he had never been involved in a meeting where the charges were discussed.

It was also revealed that Mr Chalker tried to hide a damning coronial report critical of the criminal investigation of Mr Rolfe’s actions in the shooting ahead of trial.

An unredacted final version of the coronial report showed that investigators ignored legal advice from the DPP in their pursuit to lay the murder charge against Mr Rolfe, including that their two use-of-force experts were not reliable.

It also found “critical decisions” about the investigation were made outside of official meetings and not properly recorded, including that Mr Chalker’s office directly influenced one of those “critical decisions” to use compromised use-of-force experts against legal advice.

The NT Independent later disclosed the report was significantly altered just two days after senior NT Police discovered Mr Rolfe’s legal team knew of its existence.

Now retired Superintendent Scott Pollock was the first author of the report, and gave evidence to the Walker coronial inquest that NT Police’s criminal investigation was the most biased investigation against a suspect he had seen in his long and distinguished career with the NT Police force.

He was removed from managing the file in November 2020, after his findings contradicted the criminal investigation and angered his superiors.

Senior police also attempted to shut down the coronial investigation due to Mr Pollock’s findings, but it was reinstated after three days, understood to be at the request of former coroner Greg Cavanagh.

Mr Chalker had been given a lifeline back to the police force by the Gunner Government, after being plucked from being the CEO of the Housing Department amid turmoil in that department’s inability to roll out a remote housing program, after the sudden departure of Reece Kershaw from the Police Commissioner’s role to head the Australian Federal Police in 2019.

Mr Riches further said in his political interference report that he would only investigate the “myriad of other assertions” of what happened after Mr Rolfe was charged following the end of the coronial inquest, and only if it were in the public interest to do so. That appears unlikely now given Riches’s recent resignation amid a damning report into his workplace conduct.

After the “retirement” of Mr Chalker in April 2023, Michael Murphy was appointed acting police commissioner and later police commissioner.

Another example of the substantial blurring of the lines between political involvement and administrative responsibilities, occurred when Mr Murphy issued an extraordinary apology at the Garma Festival in August last year to the Indigenous people of his jurisdiction, in line with then-Labor Government policy.

He formally apologised to all Aboriginal Territorians, declaring police had favoured protecting “settlers” over Aboriginal people and said he was “deeply sorry for the hurt and injustices” this had caused them over more than a century.

Yet another example of the interference in police operations is found again in the reporting by the NT Independent in June 2023, while Mr Murphy was still the acting Police Commissioner and was seeking the job permanently. Sources in the police force revealed to the paper that the Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet marketing manager Sita Bacher was brought in to oversee what crime was reported to the public by the NT Police. Her role usurped the NT Police media unit.

This happened during a period of time when the Labor Government was under constant pressure over what was perceived to be a crime “crisis” in the NT.

A little over a week after her role was revealed, the NT Police’s director of communications Margaret McKeown was dismissed without explanation, with sources indicating police communications staff had been interrogated by detectives without any representation in an attempt and find what police believed was a “leak” to the NT Independent about Ms Bacher’s role.

Mr Turner, who is a former NT Police officer, labelled the appointment of Ms Bacher as “Orwellian” and called for “courage” to end the political interference.

He said that having Ms Bacher in this previously non-existent role compounded the lack of public trust in the pillars of government, adding there was a culture of fear in the public service that was damaging the Territory.

“For the government to have legitimacy, people have to believe in it, and regardless of what political spin-masters may want to believe, we live in a western democracy with policing by consent,” he said.

“Not an Orwellian dictatorship with policing by force and the spectre of big brother and the thought police.

“The culture of fear in our public service to avoid speaking out is holding the Territory back.”

This unfortunately, has occurred to a serious extent in both these key branches of governance – the police and the public service. This is not only causing major problems for NT economic and social development, but also having a major impact on the faith and trust Territorians place in the government.

Further reading by Don Fuller:

READ: The vice-chancellor needs re-focus to make CDU a high quality university

READ: Rising social conflicts and escalating debt mean a bleak outlook for the Northern Territory

READ: Northern Territory – Failed governance, cultural clash and an uncertain future

READ: Opinion: ICAC also needs to be investigated for failing to properly investigate former chief minister

READ: How not to manage government finances – The case of the Northern Territory

READ: The Gunner Government: A collision between Budget misuse and democratic responsibilities

Dr Don Fuller holds a first class Honours degree and PhD in economics from the University of Adelaide and has worked as a senior public servant in the Territory and as Professor of Governance and Head of the Schools of Law and Business at Charles Darwin University. He grew up in Darwin and attended Darwin High School.

He was also involved with the establishment of the first NT medical school under the leadership of Flinders University vice-chancellor Professor Ian Chubb.

Dr Fuller was also an adviser to the former CLP MLA Maralampuwi Francis Xavier, was briefly the senior private secretary to Chief Minister Paul Everingham, and is a former member of the CLP and the ALP.