NT Racing Minister Natahsa Fyles has refused to say if the Gunner Government will seek to recover the $12 million grandstand funding from the Darwin Turf Club despite the Chief Minister vowing to get the money back, while Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said grants should not be ‘clawed back” from community organisations.
EXCLUSIVE: Chief Minister Michael Gunner convinced Cabinet to approve $12 million of taxpayer money for the Darwin Turf Club by taking the decision “out of certain people’s hands”, a Turf Club board member and friend of Mr Gunner’s told the board just days after the grant was approved, recordings from the meeting reveal.
Serious questions have been raised over how an NT Government investigation ordered by Chief Minister Michael Gunner into the $12 million Darwin Turf Club grandstand scandal did not turn up any instances of suspicious conduct or raise any alarm bells, given the material reported in the NT Independent’s recent special investigation series.
Darwin Turf Club chairman Brett Dixon advised his board to seek money from Thoroughbred Racing NT – another taxpayer-funded body he is the chair of – to cover an increase in costs of the Silks lounge, a project his construction company was carrying out works on, internal Turf Club documents obtained by the NT Independent reveal.
The Darwin Turf Club’s major players, including those who sat on the panel that selected Jaytex as the winning contractor for the $12 million grandstand project, had serious conflicts of interest, some of which do not appear to have been disclosed, the NT Independent can reveal.
EXCLUSIVE: The majority of the Darwin Turf Club’s board of directors were nervous about public backlash, and some feared a corruption investigation, but they unanimously approved giving chairman Brett Dixon’s company the $12 million taxpayer-funded grandstand contract anyway, internal club records obtained by the NT Independent show.
EXCLUSIVE: Darwin Turf Club chairman and businessman Brett Dixon was personally involved in discussions with the board about the $12 million taxpayer-funded grandstand project while it was at the open tender stage, despite publicly claiming he had removed himself from all discussions, internal documents obtained by the NT Independent reveal.
EXCLUSIVE: The Darwin Turf Club’s board of directors was not aware chairman Brett Dixon was lobbying the Gunner Government for a $12 million grant to build a new grandstand until he disclosed that he had secured the taxpayer money in June 2019 – less than three months before his company was awarded the contract to build it – internal Turf Club documents obtained by the NT Independent reveal.
