EDITORIAL: Barkly Regional Council Mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin is under investigation by police for the fourth time in 13 months, while continually dodging responsibility. If his latest actions were so honourable, why didn’t he personally post about his successful Mayoral approach to tackling crime?
The former independent MLA for Nelson writes that he hopes people formally express their concerns about the Holtze draft plan by October 6, saying it seems the size of blocks in the area will be decided by developers not the government.
OPINION: Would a ‘fresh cream pie’ to the face constitute aggravated assault against a general member of the public and would the police prioritise already scarce resources to prosecute it if the victim had been anyone else, writes Kate Fulton, surmising the answer raises important questions about the Northern Territory’s philosophies concerning law and governance.
EDITORIAL: Education Minister Eva Lawler’s tired defence for the broken Northern Territory education system she and her cabinet colleagues have overseen for the last seven consecutive years – and 18 of the last 22 – is typical of this government that can’t accept responsibility for anything or even admit there’s a problem anywhere in the Territory.
All Territorians should vote ‘Yes’ in the upcoming referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, writes local businessman Owen Pike, because this is what is best for the Territory and those who really benefit from the glorious gravy train that will flow faster and thicker in the event of a successful ‘Yes’ vote.
ANALYSIS: Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’s taxpayer-funded US trip has all the hallmarks of a classic political travel scandal on the madcap level of the previous CLP government’s bizarro trips, despite what the state media organ NT News and Katie Woolf say.
OPINION: The Charles Darwin University city campus building is harsh, incongruous, non-welcoming and more suited to an industrial, manufacturing environment, and thus a missed opportunity to celebrate the special features and characteristics of the city, writes a former CDU head of the School of Law and Business, and Professor of Governance.
EDITORIAL: Michael Murphy’s appointment as the Territory’s new top cop sends a clear message that nobody in the government wants the major dysfunction and ongoing allegations of corruption facing the NT Police to be cleaned up.
EDITORIAL: Mayor Kon Vatskalis’s heavy-handed approach to dealing with conflict at council by physically banning an elected councillor who criticised the Labor Government is a perfect illustration of Territory Labor’s crush-and-destroy approach to silencing critics – but Kon is doing it in public for everyone to see and that’s where it gets messy.
The authorisation of taxpayers’ money to advance and run Labor’s 2020 election campaign – breathtaking in its audacity, Trumpian in its ethics and arrogant to the point they thought they’d never be caught – has seemingly been embraced by caucus ahead of next year’s election at the expense of our democracy, writes former Labor political adviser Charlie Phillips.
OPINION: The Peppimenarti community is not being protected from the Jovi Boys gang’s crimes by the NT Government or the NT Police, writes the chief executive of Deewin Kirim Aboriginal Corporation, which means his organisation cannot properly provide training, job opportunities, sports and recreation activities, ranger groups, medical services and community development program activities.
In the greater Darwin area we see school aged children wandering around “all day, every day” and being denied an education – what action is Minister Lawler and her well-paid advisors taking, asks Dawn Lawrie.
