Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has returned home from Canberra with no new committed federal cash for flood recovery efforts, pledging instead to dip into the Territory’s over-stretched coffers for a $100 million Flood Recovery Fund that will be overseen by Minister Jo Hersey – the same Minister who drew the ire of the Federal Government by spreading false “speculation” on social media Monday that the NT Government would be billed for ADF members helping clean up Katherine.
Two men from the Borroloola area are facing drug charges following a drug bust in the remote community that saw 11 kilos of cannabis and more than half a million dollars in cash seized by police from a 68-year-old man.
Lands and Planning Minister Josh Burgoyne donned a cowboy hat Monday morning to announce the Finocchiaro CLP Government is gifting a two-hectare parcel of land to the NT Livestock Exporters Association to expand the Berrimah Export Yards, but the value of the free land and the cost of planned infrastructure works was not disclosed.
Alice Springs corrections officers’ plan to walk off the job next Friday over stalled pay negotiations with the government will force prisons into full lockdown, with the Corrections Department raising concerns about community safety.
Northern Territory Police say an officer who shared a photo of a half-naked distressed Aboriginal woman with colleagues in a group chat will not face a criminal investigation, partly because he had received an internal punishment of 12 months’ good behaviour, while the agency has refused to say whether the woman was asked if she wanted the matter investigated.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government used its numbers in Parliament to block backbencher Tanzil Rahman from being investigated by a parliamentary committee over allegations he bullied female staff members, after Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro repeatedly refused to say what action she has taken on the matter and Mr Rahman’s failure to refute the allegations or apologise in a statement over the weekend.
The Local Government Minister and the Katherine Town Council will not say why an investigation was launched into the council last year, but the NT Independent understands it probed elected members’ understanding of their roles and the now former chief executive’s performance.
UPDATED: An allegedly intoxicated man who reportedly attempted to assault people as he left the Mindil Beach Casino early Monday morning was later arrested in Durack after an officer found an unregistered gun in his car, NT Police said, later clarifying the firearm is an air gun and not a standard Glock as it was originally called in the supplied picture.
A Labor candidate who sought endorsements from reviled former chief ministers Michael Gunner and Natasha Fyles appears likely to win the Nightcliff by-election with help from the CLP after preferences, according to updated figures on Monday afternoon.
CLP backbencher Tanzil Rahman broke weeks of silence Sunday over bullying allegations in an unusual statement from his electorate office rather than through the CLP’s highly-paid spin doctors, stating he was “deeply offended” by the allegations and “actively considering my legal options”.
A 42-year-old Humpty Doo man was apprehended at a Palmerston shopping centre Sunday morning by the joint anti-child exploitation team and later charged with producing and transmitting child abuse material, NT Police said.
A rocket launching company the previous Labor government invested more than $5 million of public funds into has gone into liquidation, with the Chief Minister mocking Labor again for their poor investment decisions, but refusing to answer questions about whether she would now call a public inquiry into how Labor wasted millions of taxpayer money investing in doomed private business enterprises.
