The NTFL should have an ‘Inclusive’ round, rather than a Pride one, because it would say that no matter who you are, male or female, and no matter your religion, ethnicity, sexuality, or politics, you are still welcome to participate in Australian rules football, writes Gerry Wood.
ANALYSIS: The latest ICAC investigation report into the TRG officers who swore false statements to the court provides us with perhaps the best example yet of how those in positions of power in the Territory set up a supposedly independent investigation to appear independent, while secretly ensuring its predetermined outcomes fall in their favour.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro plans to grant herself extraordinary new powers to declare exemptions to the law, through the Territory Coordinator position, has an audacity that eclipses former PM Scott Morrison’s multiple ministries scandal, writes Justin Tutty.
CDU vice-chancellor Scott Bowman needs to be far more concerned with strengthening the Northern Territory’s democracy, as the staff member he publicly rebuked is, rather than appearing to wish to ingratiate himself with whoever happens to be in power, writes Dr Don Fuller.
A new evaluation of a project that involved 214 kids at two preschools in Queensland receiving an enhanced program focused on communication skills 20 years ago, shows it reduced the amount of young people before the courts for serious crime by 56 per cent, writes Jacqueline Allen, Kate Freiberg, and Ross Homel.
Given its importance to the wider Aboriginal community, Batchelor Institute needs to be placed under the organisational control of a federal government department to ensure appropriate levels of governance and financial standards required of an organisation so heavily dependent on taxpayer funding, writes Dr Don Fuller.
The Northern Territory needs to legalise growing marijuana, with production confined to Aboriginal land, to create a First Nations industry and increase tourism, writes Fiona Collins.
The NT CLP Government’s move to reduce the age of criminal responsibility for children as young as 10 is a brutal, costly and genocidal attack on the NT’s most vulnerable, writes prominent barrister Alistair Wyvill, which raises troubling questions about the Territory’s capacity to govern itself.
We had a taste of an archaic approach to passing bills last week by the CLP Government not using the scrutiny committee and rushing them through on urgency, and while the government has promised to reintroduce the committee, we must now wait and see the fine print, writes Gerry Wood.
Successive NT governments seem more concerned with maintaining power than making principled leadership decisions following honest and transparent communication with voters, and the problems of rapidly developing social conflicts, and escalating debt, point to a bleak future, writes Don Fuller.
If the new government wants to keep Territorians safe from crime it needs to open the new youth detention centre as a priority, not lower the age of criminal responsibility, and fix the ‘silent crisis’ of pervasive delay in the Local Court to provide justice for all, writes criminal lawyer Clancy Dane.
Remote enrolments increased in the lead-up to The Voice referendum last year, yet the NTEC indicated that fewer than 45 per cent of eligible remote voters exercised their votes at August’s NT election, citing “voter fatigue and general apathy”, writes Dr Robyn Smith, while the question remains: why?
