Police Minister Kate Worden hired a lawyer to threaten Action for Alice Facebook page administrator Darren Clark with a lawsuit over comments he published about his first meeting with her, the NT Independent understands, which Ms Worden told Estimates this morning she paid for herself.

Independent MLA Robyn Lambley asked Ms Worden if she had charged taxpayers for legal action she initiated against Mr Clark.

“No,” Ms Worden responded curtly.

News of the legal action comes as the popular page has been in limbo for the last five days, with no new posts about crime in the town since Saturday.

Yesterday, however, a statement was posted on the Action for Alice page, presumably authored by Mr Clark:

“On 13 April 2023 I made a post in response to Minister Worden’s reference to comments by the federal opposition leader,” the statement said.

“I am informed that Minister Worden denies the statements attributed to her. I accept that our recollections of the meeting may be different.

“In the circumstances I retract the statements attributed to Minister Worden and provide an unreserved apology for any embarrassment caused to her as a result of the post.”

The anti-crime page was suspended for 28 days back in February, with allegations raised at the time that the suspension was initiated by Labor Government operatives and the NT Police executive, who have publicly indicated their frustration with the page revealing the true extent of crime in Alice Springs on a daily basis.

The Action for Alice page also played a crucial role in forcing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to visit the town for crime crisis talks with local and state officials earlier this year. Mr Clark, who is a small businessman operating a bakery in Alice, has emerged as one of the Fyles Government’s most powerful critics.

Back in April, Mr Clark alleged that in his first meeting with Ms Worden as Territory Families Minister in 2021, she had told him he was lucky her husband had not come with her to “bash him”, which came after Mr Clark had published a Facebook post critical of her going on holidays during a rise in crime in the town while Territory Families Minister.

He had revealed the contents of the meeting after Ms Worden had referred to federal Liberal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton raising concerns about child abuse in Central Australia as a “dog act”.

The NT Independent ran a story about Mr Clark’s claims on April 19, 2023. When contacted to provide a response to the claims before the story was published, Ms Worden did not respond to suggest the claims were false.

At no time following publication of the story did Ms Worden or anyone in her office indicate to the NT Independent that she believed the story to be defamatory.

Although the Fyles Government has an illegal ban on this publication in place, Ms Worden has answered questions from the NT Independent previously.

Ms Worden’s office declined to explain that today. She also would not say if the legal action against Mr Clark was directly in response to his comments or if she was attempting to intimidate and shut down the popular page because it has exposed issues the police executive and government did not want exposed.

Efforts to contact Mr Clark were unsuccessful.

It is unclear if or when Action for Alice may start reporting on crime in Alice Springs again.