This is the fourth instalment in a series by Dr Don Fuller looking at the failures in the Northern Territory: the moral and integrity failures of politicians and government, the politicisation of, and the instability in, the public service and the police, and the unfair and unjust treatment of lower level employees in the public service 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

READ: The Failed State Part III – The politicisation of the public service and police, with the added muzzling of the free press

In the previous instalment of this series I wrote about the politicisation of the public service, which is when the boundary between the political and administrative branches of government is breached in a way that compromises the political neutrality of the public sector and police.

If the NT public service and police force are to perform at the high standards required in a functioning democracy, not only should politicisation of these important administrative arms of government cease, but there is an important need for equity of treatment for senior staff compared to other levels within these bureaucracies.

There are a number of disturbing examples where serious misdemeanours by senior staff are either ignored or treated with relative indifference compared to other members of staff.

Beside this there are examples of significant inconsistencies in the treatment of staff that have committed alleged misdemeanours.

Careers in the public service and NT police force need to rest on the important principles that fair employment decisions are made, and there is a fair system of review.

Decisions relating to engagement and promotion need, importantly, to be based on merit.

Workplaces need to be flexible, safe and rewarding places where communication, consultation, cooperation and input from employees are valued.

Importantly in the case of the Territory, workplaces need to be free from discrimination, patronage and favouritism.

However, such principles continue to be ignored by successive governments in the Territory resulting in a rapid decline in the morale, competence, trust and integrity of the key administrative branches of government.

Increasingly it appears that the Territory is being governed by a small cabal of senior politicians and politically appointed staffers and advisers, who usurp much of the traditional roles of a professional public service and police force.

This leads to a major diminution of high quality, independent advice to the political branch of government leading to ongoing policy and economic development failures for the Territory.

This tendency appears to be accelerating in the newly elected Finocchiaro CLP Government.

A glaring example of how senior members of the administrative branch of government in the NT appear to be treated in a privileged and preferential manner is provided by the example of the now former Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Michael Riches.

As reported in the NT Independent, Mr Riches was suspended from the role in late June 2024 following serious allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by “several” female staff members and sparked an investigation by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment.

Mr Riches, who denied any wrongdoing, but who resigned from his role on May 13 this year, had been collecting his estimated $500,000 salary while on leave since the allegations first surfaced, allegations which followed a separate investigation into his handling of domestic violence allegations made by his ex-wife Jennifer Riches.

He resigned after the OCPE report – prepared by Melbourne-based law firm Justitia – was provided to the Chief Minister and ICAC Inspector Bruce McClintock on May 9.

The heavily redacted report included one former staffer stating Mr Riches has “a thing for pretty girls in the office”, while 15 people described Mr Riches’s leadership style as “erratic, controlling, and awkward socially”, with one describing his office as “the most horrible place I’ve ever worked”.

The workplace investigation was expected to be completed by September 2024, but dragged on and was not finalised until April 16, 2025. It was not referred to the Chief Minister until May 7 for unknown reasons, while Mr Riches continued to receive his full salary.

Mr McClintock claimed it was “not in the public interest” to further investigate Mr Riches following the latest report because he resigned. He did not say if any of the substantiated claims may also be a breach of the ICAC Act.

Questions still remain over Mr McClintock clearing Mr Riches of corrupt conduct in relation to his handling of domestic violence allegations made by Ms Riches, including a $20,000 pay-off he made to her to drop a domestic violence order application made in May 2023. Mr Riches denies the allegations of wrongdoing.

Mr McClintock made no reference to the undisclosed domestic violence undertaking Mr Riches signed in relation to his wife’s allegations and made no findings as to the truth of the domestic violence allegations.

However, it was later revealed in a secret email between the pair that Mr Riches had asked Mr McClintock if he should resign in May 2023 when the domestic violence allegations were first raised, but remained in the role, with the allegations only investigated in June of last year by Mr McClintock, the same person he had sought advice from.

It remains unclear why both men did not disclose the broader domestic violence allegation to the Chief Minister at the time.

A report tabled in Parliament last October by Mr McClintock found that Mr Riches had set a target of 80 per cent of “examinations” – or interviews with witnesses – being completed within one month of lawyers receiving the brief, but failed to conduct any examinations over the entire 12-month reporting period before he was suspended.

The then-acting ICAC, Naomi Louden, claimed this was due to renovations to the office’s hearing room and a new policy introduced by the suspended Mr Riches not to force people suspected of corruption to provide evidence, citing concerns for their mental health.

Confusingly, Mr McClintock wrote in one paragraph of the report that the performance of the OICAC “has been satisfactory”, and in the next paragraph that: “I do not evaluate the performance of the OICAC as satisfactory”.

Mr Riches only made four investigation reports public since he was appointed Commissioner in July 2021; three where he made no findings, and another involving his investigation into alleged political interference in the charging of police officer Zach Rolfe with murder for the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker, resulting in a finding of no improper conduct. That report was covered in the most recent part of this series.

Mr Riches also removed from public viewing a report by his predecessor Ken Fleming into the Darwin Turf Club grandstand affair which contained findings of serious misconduct and corruption although we’re assured its findings are still active.

Yet despite his performance he remained in the job and kept on full pay during the investigation into his behaviour.

An additional glaring and disturbing example of the favourable treatment of senior public servants compared to less powerful public servants occurred with the then-CEO of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics, Andrew Kirkman, who was also mentioned in an earlier part of the series.

In July last year, the Work Health Court found department employee Maria Rust was verbally abused and threatened by Mr Kirkman and was awarded legal costs.

In a demonstration of a lack of concern with appropriate ethical standards within the senior ranks of the NT public service, there were no repercussions against him by the former Labor government.

New CLP Chief Minister Lia Finnochiaro also ruled out any repercussions for Mr Kirkman, despite a judge finding that he and the department knew they had no case and failed to act as model litigants.

Documents obtained by the NT Independent also showed the lawyers representing Mr Kirkman hired a private investigator to conduct ongoing surveillance of Ms Rust for nine months – which continued for months after the department had all the evidence it needed to reasonably conclude that she was not faking the mental health injury.

Ms Rust successfully sued Mr Kirkman and the department in the Work Health Court, where Acting Judge John Neil found Mr Kirkman had inflicted a mental injury on her during a meeting on July 30, 2021 in which he banged his fists on the table, yelled at her, and said her career would be “destroyed” if she appealed his decision to move her out of the office.

The judge also found Mr Kirkman, and several of his staff members, misled the court, and were found not to have provided credible evidence in defence of Mr Kirkman’s threats to expose an erroneous assertion that Ms Rust had engaged in an extra-marital affair with her immediate supervisor.

Judge Neil awarded undisclosed costs to Ms Rust in that matter that the taxpayer will have to cover.

This week, the NT Independent revealed that Territory taxpayers have bailed out Mr Kirkman once again, preventing him from testifying at a Federal Circuit Court legal action taken by Ms Rust.

A general protections application hearing was suddenly vacated and a settlement was reached at the last minute that kept the matter out of court.

Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby refused to comment on why taxpayers were being forced to pay to settle the matter before the details of Ms Rust’s general protections claim were heard in court.

When the CLP came to government, Mr Kirkman was moved to head the new Agriculture and Fisheries Department.

However, after all that had been found against him, it was not until April 17 that he suddenly departed his role in the public service, after 26 years, amid the growing scandal at the Darwin Waterfront Corporation that led to a Legislative Assembly Public Accounts Committee public hearing held this week. The hearing appeared to be a superficial process in an attempt to somehow justify obvious financial and administrative problems involving the Chief Minister’s husband, Sam Burke.

The NT Independent ran a series of investigative articles on the 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.

The PAC’s terms of reference however narrowed the public hearing to Mr Burke’s taxpayer-funded salary, including the awarding of higher duties allowances, with new revelations about a 2020 contract that saw his pay level increased permanently from ECO1 to ECO2 amid questionable practices.

Mr Kirman was on the board of the DWC but was recently replaced.

He was also the CEO of the DWC in 2015 when Mr Burke was named general manager of the corporation, although Mr Kirkman was not on the selection panel.

Mr Burke had previously worked as chief of staff for a Minister in the Giles Government and was awarded his DWC job about nine months before that government lost the 2016 election in a landslide.

“We are determined to lead a government which is effective, coordinated and focused on the priorities of Territorians,” Ms Finocchiaro said about the machinery of government changes which included Mr Kirkman’s new job last September.

Such statements run at direct odds with what actually occurs in political decision making, and raise the key question as to how the public can place any credence or trust in the statements of senior politicians and their politically appointed senior members of the public service.

Deceptive statements that run counter to what is actually occurring in government are rapidly noticed by citizens and lead to a further, escalating lack of confidence and trust in democratic government.

In direct contrast to the situations of Mr Riches and Mr Kirkman, in June 2022 the Fair Work Commission ruled in favour of Dripstone Middle School teacher Anna Gikas who was sacked because of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

She is the sister of ABC Darwin journalist and television presenter Eleni Roussos, who had developed pericarditis after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and was hospitalised for a week in early November 2021.

Because of what happened to her sister, Ms Gikas postponed her first appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, scheduling an appointment with a cardiologist to have her heart checked before receiving the vaccine.

However, a shortage of medical specialists delayed the appointment, which subsequently delayed her first dose of the vaccine.

Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan found Ms Gikas’ reason was “understandable”.

The NT Government ordered that all public servants receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by November 13, 2021, or not attend their place of work.

Despite Ms Gikas having been on approved carer’s leave that the Commissioner found created “zero chance of the applicant, or the school, breaching CHO [chief health officer] Direction No. 55”, the Education Department did not think so and terminated her 12-month contract.

The lack of fairness, equity and consistency in police

There have also been major inconsistencies in the way senior officers in the NT police force have been treated compared with other ranks.

In 2018, then-NT police commissioner John McRoberts was sentenced to three years in jail, to be suspended after 12 months, for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The jury found McRoberts tried to “frustrate” or “deflect” a travel agent fraud investigation known as Operation Subutai between May and November 2014.

Mr McRoberts had been in a sexual relationship with the investigation’s priority target, former travel agent and NT Crime Stoppers chairwoman Xana Kamitsis, who was sentenced to almost four years’ imprisonment on fraud and corruption charges in 2015.

Acting Justice Dean Mildren took less than an hour to summarise the evidence and deliver his sentence at Darwin’s Supreme Court.

“As Commissioner, the public has the right to expect that you can be trusted absolutely,” he said.

Despite such a serious case of attempting to pervert the course of justice by a serving police commissioner, the then-CLP Giles government refused to disclose how much Mr McRoberts – not even a year into a five-year contract – would receive on his exit from the job.

Government pay scales suggested Mr McRoberts may have been paid a base of about $350,000 a year. Exactly what he was paid has never been disclosed.

As noted earlier in this series, Jamie Chalker was appointed to the position of NT police commissioner in 2019.

However by August 2022, it was reported in media that a damning NT Police Association survey showed NT Police officers did “not have confidence” in Commissioner Chalker, noting morale was low and there was a lack of resources.

In a media statement, then-NTPA president Paul McCue said the results showed the police force was “in complete crisis”.

Survey questions asked respondents to give reasons why they had no confidence in Mr Chalker’s leadership.

Among the multiple-choice options was “the management and communication relating to the Yuendumu critical incident”.

As covered earlier in the series, then-constable Zach Rolfe was charged, and later found not guilty of murder, after shooting Yuendumu man Kumanjayi Walker during an attempted arrest in 2019, two days before Mr Chalker was due to start as Police Commissioner.

In May 2021, the NT Independent reported that Mr Chalker did not disclose the existence of two coronial reports into the death of Mr Walker to the Director of Public Prosecutions and Mr Rolfe’s defence team before Mr Rolfe’s committal hearing on the murder charge.

Richard Rolfe, Zach’s father, accused Mr Chalker of acting corruptly by hiding those reports and said the NT’s top cop needed to resign or be sacked.

The Commissioner was forced to publicly denounce any wrongdoing and deny there had been any political interference in the decision to charge Zach.

No action was taken against Mr Chalker by the Gunner Labor Government when that was revealed.

It was only after the problems intensified in the NT Police force, which was exposed through media reporting, that Mr Chalker agreed to “retire” at the end of April 2023, six months before his contract was due to expire.

The announcement came a day before Mr Chalker was due to file his evidence in a Supreme Court case that he had brought against the NT Government, preventing his termination, which could have seen then-chief minister Natasha Fyles and the police minister Kate Worden cross-examined in court.

Given Mr Chalker’s contract was not due to expire for another six months, and the fact he hired legal heavyweights Arthur Moses and Rebekah Giles to represent him, it has been speculated a significant sum could have been paid to him.

This compares with the example of Mr Rolfe who was virtually turfed out of NT Police without compensation, even though he was found not guilty of the charges he faced in March 2022.

He was suspended immediately following the not guilty verdict, on dozens of alleged serious breaches of discipline, including historic use-of-force allegations, for talking to the media, and for private messages he had sent friends critical of police.

He was later cleared of all disciplinary matters and reinstated as a police member in July 2022, but went on personal leave a month later.

Mr Rolfe was forced into retirement in March 2023, based on “psychological and risk assessments”, a decision which also came 10 days after the NT Independent published an opinion piece authored by him in which he was critical of the police commissioner and the coroner.

Again, in contrast to the financial payout to Mr Chalker, Mr Chalker was responsible for stripping a respected officer and father-of-two, former sergeant Mark Casey, of his livelihood for speaking out against him in an opinion piece in the NT Independent.

The piece called for the police force to restore its core values and hold a vote of no confidence against Mr Chalker in the wake of the revelations concerning how the Rolfe matter was handled.

The 25-year veteran was suspended without pay after his opinion piece garnered thousands of reads and hundreds of social media shares in support.

Mr Casey filed a misconduct report about an executive police member in 2019 – resulting in disciplinary action being taken against him for reporting it – before he raised it again directly to Mr Chalker in 2020, with no apparent action taken on the complaint before he was fired.

It is not likely to be a coincidence that Commander Sonia Kennon was responsible for disciplining Mr Casey. She is the wife of Peter Kennon, a good mate of the most recently disgraced police commissioner Michael Murphy, whose promotion to assistant commissioner led to the downfall of Mr Murphy.

She was also promoted twice over a short time under the Murphy regime, after allegedly failing the senior sergeant’s exam multiple times.

In April 2020, the now former NT Police sergeant Ross Martin was suspended without pay, by senior police for creating a racist singlet referencing Mr Walker’s death.

A picture of the singlet, which was designed with the slogan, ‘Don’t wanna get shot… Don’t stab a cop! … #BlueLivesMatter’ was shared widely on social media.

He was sacked by the force, with Assistant Commissioner Michael White stating his actions brought the entire police force into disrepute and was unacceptable.

However, in comparison to the dismissal of some officers for non-criminal actions, there are other examples of serious wrongdoing, potential criminality, leading to no consequences for some favoured people. While the lack of consequences could appear as a cover-up of an as-yet unidentified political influence in the charging of Mr Rolfe.

The first of these is the five senior Territory Response Group officers who lied to Coroner Elizabeth Armitage in the Kumanjayi Walker coronial inquest, who were mentioned in the first instalment of this series.

The issue of the racist Noogudah awards were first raised in February 2024 during the coronial inquest by Mr Rolfe, who said he was aware of racist award certificates being handed out by TRG members at their annual dinner, also called the “coon of the year” awards, with the winner awarded a “caveman club” with nails in it that was later revealed to be a makeshift weapon sized during riots in Wadeye.

The NT Independent revealed in an investigative series that the officers lied to the coroner in false stat decs, that at least one of the five allegedly attempted to delete evidence of the racist awards on computer drives and that some shared jokes on social media about their involvement and getting away with it.

The reporting also referenced videos and photos showing some of the officers at the Noogudah awards, and that one officer who denied knowledge of the awards had his name engraved on the Noogudah club: an improvised weapon seized from a remote community during riots that he told the court was “never linked to Indigenous people”.

While in an initial several day investigation by ICAC found that the awards were racist, Commissioner Riches’s longer investigation into the officers lying to the court in sworn statements released in mid-November made no adverse findings because of promises made by Mr Riches before he collected any evidence, which later led to evidence that contradicts the officers not being admissible.

While the ICAC investigation was supposed to be a joint investigation run by the now Acting Police Commissioner Martin Dole, it is unclear what role NT Police played.

In December, Ms Finocchiaro ruled out referring the police officers for further investigation for the crime of perjury, despite now claiming her government takes action on misconduct.

In April, Ms Finocchiaro also caused confusion with her public remarks, telling Parliament that the officers were currently under an NT Police “internal review”, but later saying “this matter is closed” when asked what action she is taking as Police Minister to clean up the mess.

This is also an example of the absence of political leadership in the need to support the ‘rule of law’.

Multiple police sources said Ms Finocchiaro’s inaction had cost the NT Police force good members who won’t work for an organisation that protects officers who lie in court, and that the force had lost credibility and the respect of Territorians over the debacle and lack of action.

As well as showing the unfairness of treatment, and perhaps something even more, it is also now a case where the Finocchiaro Government needs to restore the public’s confidence in the NT Police and the ICAC.

The second case is that of the serious concerns raised about the behaviour of former police detective senior sergeant Wayne Newell.

Mr Newell played a lead role in the flawed Rolfe murder investigation, as well as the high profile case of former Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne, who a recent ICAC report showed the previous Labor government entered into an undisclosed payout deal with after her trial was aborted, but before the DPP could appeal the judge’s decision.

It has been alleged that Mr Newell engaged in manipulating evidence in the Rolfe murder trial.

Newell was referred to Victoria Police investigators in September 2023, but only after Mr Rolfe’s lawyers made allegations he perverted the course of justice in a criminal complaint against the senior officer by manipulating evidence from a use-of-force expert and withholding crucial evidence from the defence team.

It’s understood the Victoria report cleared Mr Newell of any wrongdoing in relation to the Rolfe murder investigation, but it has still not been released and is being kept under wraps until Coroner Armitage hands down the findings in her coronial inquest into the death of Mr Walker, expected now next month.

However the NT Independent reported last August that the then-52-year-old Newell was sacked for “serious breaches” after being placed on suspension with pay for weeks following an alleged ‘catfishing’ incident.

It was alleged that Newell impersonated a female officer in an online dating app, where he exchanged sexually explicit photos with an unknown male who later attempted to meet the female officer in person.

He has since been sentenced after pleading guilty to one count of using a carriage service to harass, given an 18-month good behaviour bond with a $2000 surety as a condition.

It has been further suggested that senior police attempted to keep such a case out of the public spotlight, raising further questions about leadership and transparency in an important public institution.