OPINION: Four years after former NT Police sergeant Paul Milne warned about psychological injury, stigma and a system reliant on officers asking for help, he writes that the recent coronial findings into Senior Constable Michael Deutrom’s death, along with years of reviews, strategies and investment, raise questions about whether officers are any safer.
ANALYSIS: Fifteen months ago, Territory Labor Leader Selena Uibo was handed a review of the party’s crushing 2024 election defeat prepared by the national executive, which she promptly hid and refused to make public. Today, the NT Independent can reveal the contents of that report show the party has yet to fully come to terms with why Territorians booted it from office and failed to learn any lessons from one of the worst political defeats in Territory history.
There is no current market for production-scale Beetaloo gas fracking until a pipeline is built, so the CLP has announced plans for a string of water-guzzling, AI data centres powered by Beetaloo fracking, writes Bree Ahrens, that might make things easier for the fracking industry, but there’s no happy ending for Territorians.
The Acacia IT project was intended to transform healthcare, not simply replace ageing systems, but failed to follow its master plan, maintain clinical involvement, test whether continued spending was delivering value, and mistook extensive governance structures for effective oversight, writes project consultant André Snoxall.
The Northern Territory’s new water laws risk handing greater control of the Territory’s scarce water resources to commercial interests while undermining Aboriginal water rights and environmental safeguards, argue Erin O’Donnell, Professor Marcia Langton and Sue Jackson.
The Northern Territory Government’s claims that developing the Beetaloo Sub-basin will contribute $17 billion to the economy and 13,000 jobs relies on a very low probability scenario in nine-year-old modelling, while the moderate scenario shows less than $40 million a year in economic benefit to the Territory and an average of 82 jobs a year over 25 years, writes Climate Integrity executive director Claire Snyder.
The NT Government should allow Southern Cross Care to expand its Pearl aged-care facility onto adjoining public land in Fannie Bay, rather than requiring it to compete with private developers, as the Territory faces a shortage of aged-care places, writes Sonja Pastor.
Despite the NT’s extraordinary dependence on Canberra, its latest National Cabinet “win” reveals a striking parallel: the Commonwealth has not used its power to stop Aboriginal disadvantage GST money being spent elsewhere and now it’s not using its power to stop renewable policy being bent to accommodate gas-powered AI data centres, writes Justin Tutty.
Defence Housing Australia needs to relocate its planned housing development to the Defence Establishment Berrimah site and include a land swap that leaves the irreplaceable natural and cultural values of Lee Point intact for future generations, writes the Planning Action Network’s Nick Kirlew.
The vote on the Northern Territory’s voluntary assisted dying legislation was a quasi conscience vote, it was really a pre-planned party vote as part of a strategy to pass the law regardless, writes Gerry Wood.
In the history of euthanasia legislation relating to the Northern Territory, this was the first occasion on which it had been presented or opposed as a matter of government policy in any parliament, writes Dr Robyn Smith.
The euthanasia debate needs more balanced media coverage and to look beyond individual choice, saying end-of-life decisions affect the whole community and the former Natural Death Act offered a sensible alternative, writes Gerry Wood.
