UPDATED: Darwin’s main arterial road, Tiger Brennan Drive, will become a tollway to help pay for Labor’s fight against youth crime, and will also be re-named Michael Gunner Way in honour of the Northern Territory’s second longest serving Labor chief minister, leaked documents reveal … in one of two April Fool’s Day stories by the NT Independent.
EDITORIAL: It is not in the political parties’ interests to fix the Territory’s crime problem, so we need to take the politics out of the debate and start looking at solutions that already exist.
The NT government’s response to the horrendous stabbing homicide of Declan Laverty at the Airport Tavern BWS at the weekend must not be panicked, but should be calm and considered, writes the Civll Liberties Australia’s chief executive officer Bill Rowlings.
OPINION: Thirty years of neoliberalism’s distinctly punitive approach to marginal groups, and the institutional degradation it set in train, is bearing its predictable fruit in the NT, writes John Lawrence, and the current polity is incapable of, and has little will, for addressing the ever-growing ills, including juvenile crime.
After three years, commercial viability is still a challenge for the NT Independent but from an editorial standpoint we have exposed so much and done so with very little resources, while having a few laughs along the way at the extent of our impact, writes NT Independent owner Owen Pike.
An Australian-initiated treaty, which federal Labor promised to sign, would guarantee B-52s and other visiting USA platforms won’t bring nuclear weapons to the NT, writes founding member of the Independent Peaceful Australia Network and Darwin-based anti-nuclear activist Justin Tutty.
A strategic vision for Australia’s security will focus on the place of the US alliance, and the role of China in shaping our regional order. But a compelling narrative must incorporate regional centres such as the NT, writes John Garrick and Michael Hatherell.
EDITORIAL: The Director of Public Prosecution’s bungling of the Colleen Gwynne abuse of office case is the latest blow to the public’s confidence in this crucial office and the director’s outright refusal to tell Territorians what happened in this matter directly contradicts his own published “mission” statement to publicly explain terminated high-profile cases.
Constable Zachary Rolfe breaks his silence in an opinion piece for the NT Independent, in which he explains those text messages, Commissioner Jamie Chalker’s legacy and how the ongoing coronial inquest is failing the community.
EDITORIAL: Previously redacted sections of the Pollock/Proctor report revealed by the NT Independent this week is the closest to a smoking gun yet that the NT Police, at the direction of Commissioner Jamie Chalker’s office, attempted to pervert the course of justice by charging Zach Rolfe with murder while aware there was insufficient evidence for the most serious charge in criminal law.
ANALYSIS: Newly sworn-in Administrator Hugh Heggie is indelibly intertwined with some of the most controversial policies, and by extension legislation, the NT has ever seen, however as this government ordered, we will not get to see the reasons why the former CHO made the decisions he did for two years. The Administrator is intended to be apolitical – so why does the Chief Minister and friends get to select their boss of bosses and what are the problems this raises for the NT?
With sewage flowing into the Howard River Gerry Wood asks are there any safety risks, and what happened to the long promised upgrade to the Coolalinga sewerage infrastructure.
