Some health workers at every major Northern Territory hospital will walk off the job in protected action tomorrow, seeking better pay and safer conditions under their next enterprise bargaining agreement, their unions have said.


Some health workers at every major Northern Territory hospital will walk off the job in protected action tomorrow, seeking better pay and safer conditions under their next enterprise bargaining agreement, their unions have said.

Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman’s contract has been renewed for another five years, but the university council will not say on what basis the decision was made, while the announcement was made two days before Mr Bowman revealed he had hired a friend and her wedding singer husband to run the university’s London campus without publicly advertising the roles.

Two Larrakia elders have filed an application to the Federal Government calling on the Environment and Water Minister to protect the Stokes Hill sacred site against the “damage and desecration” they say the proposed hotel at the Darwin Convention Centre will have on the site, which follows controversial changes the CLP Finocchiaro Government made to the NT Sacred Sites Act that the NLC says has “put all sacred sites in the NT at risk”.

The man Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman unilaterally picked to run the uni’s new London campus, Andy Bridges, has inexplicably left the role after less than a year, with Mr Bowman now hiring another mate from Far North Queensland and her wedding singer husband with public funds to lead the university’s development of the same campus, raising conflict of interest concerns.

NT childcare centres have been warned to “fix their act fast” by the government as part of a four-pillar plan to enhance accountability in the industry, following the tragic death of a toddler at an early learning centre in Humpty Doo in 2023.

The terms of reference for an internal government investigation into the death of Acacia health IT system developer Shaun Joyce have been kept secret by the government, with the Department of Corporate and Digital Development refusing to say whether it is examining the issue of identified departmental bullying more broadly or looking into further possible suicides connected to the project.

The Territory’s politicians have once again been gifted a pay rise amid record debt, with their salaries now increased by $5,000 – which follows last year’s generous $8,200 pay rise – which works out to an eight per cent increase, while the government is currently offering public servants an annual three per cent pay increase.

Private security services in Darwin and Palmerston have been doubled with more patrols and extended patrol hours ahead of Christmas, as part of the NT Government’s “upgraded safety blitz”, which it said will crackdown on antisocial behaviour and alcohol-fuelled violence.

NT WorkSafe has formally charged the MacDonnell Regional Council following the drowning death of a two-year-old child at a Kintore early learning centre in December 2020.

The Finocchiaro CLP Government racked up an $886 million net operating deficit in the 2024-25 financial year, while also borrowing $1.4 billion, according to a new audit report by the Auditor-General, which shows the big-spending CLP helped raise the Territory’s debt level to $12 billion.

The Territory’s Young Australian of the Year Jaiden Dickenson has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault stemming from a domestic violence incident, less than three weeks after he was given the award for his work helping to reduce rates of youth reoffending, The Australian has reported.

Royal Darwin Hospital was identified as one of many government-owned buildings that was not properly certified upon construction, that the current CLP Government was apparently unaware of, raising questions about whether promised certification works were carried out over the last three years, which follows bricks falling from an external wall and through a roof last weekend during Cyclone Fina.