Running the government of the Northern Territory is immensely difficult, writes Willem Westra van Holthe, Lia’s team will have to make haste and do their best to bring the people of the Territory along with them on the ride. This was a part of the reason the Giles government was smashed to bits in 2016.
ANALYSIS: The election carnage was devastatingly brutal and somehow beautiful in its fury and righteousness. Most of the Labor bastards who thought they owned the Territory were put in their place by Territorians.
EDITORIAL: We have all been subjected to a Weekend at Bernies-style election campaign, with tortuous public debates, in which the leaders said nothing of value and offered the same old, lifeless ideas that will not fix the Territory. The best hope for our democracy at this election is a hung parliament and a minority government made up with help from independents.
The mood of the NT electorate seems slightly sombre, and the most important answer lies in not who will win but how do we fix the system to better serve the Territory?
Police Commissioner Michael Murphy’s recent apology to Indigenous Territorians shows he is not proud of the members of the Northern Territory police force, writes former police officer Bob Harrison.
The NT should have a ‘consensus government’, where all the politicians are independents, with the leader and ministers selected by all members, and those who are not chosen hold the balance of power as the ‘opposition’, meaning the executive and the legislature operate independently of each other, writes Gerry Wood.
Politicians need to be vocal in opposition to small block subdivisions and acknowledge they are not the way planning in the Territory should be going, while their silence means they support these sardine subdivisions with no backyards, writes Gerry Wood.
Those who called in the police ultimately produced a result that was dishonest, inappropriate, against the best interests of Territorians and Australians…and contrary to both law and good practice, writes Civil Liberties Australia CEO Bill Rowlings about the APSAC conference, adding that transparency and openness is the best disinfectant for corruption; failing to expose it to educational media coverage was an opportunity gone south.
Caring for animals can be an important part of rehabilitating young people but the government seems reluctant to do something that is proven could help the Don Dale detainees, many of whom have had little or no love in their lives, writes Gerry Wood.
EDITORIAL: DIPL chief executive Andrew Kirkman will not resign and will not be sacked, Chief Minister Eva Lawler has now confirmed, after a judge found he misled the court, attempted to blackmail a female staffer, inflicted a mental health injury on her and acted in an “aggressive, threatening…and inappropriate manner” during a meeting that was secretly recorded.
ANALYSIS: If you need any evidence of a pervasive culture of bullying and cover-up in the upper echelons of the NT Public Service, then look no further than the ease at which DIPL chief executive Andrew Kirkman resorted to blackmailing a female staffer when she questioned his decision.
The Northern Territory AFL team business case claims the team will help ‘close the gap’ for Indigenous Territorians, but Dr Don Fuller argues the proposal raises high financial and social risks with a relatively low return to the community, and it is clear the AFL should provide the bulk of the funding if it wishes to expand the national competition, given its exceedingly large and ever-expanding resources.
