UPDATED: Fresh off an “inquiry” into questionable senior police appointments that found serious dysfunction in how senior officers are promoted, including that merit is not the over-arching principle, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has appointed Martin Dole as the next NT Police Commissioner without going through a proper hiring process to seek the best candidates.
The Federal Infrastructure Minister has responded to her Territory counterpart’s ultimatum on the proposed Alice Springs Aboriginal art gallery, which she suggested may have been political posturing by the CLP to blame the Commonwealth for its desire to bin the project outright, describing Bill Yan’s demand that the feds approve variations by yesterday as “a pretty weird way of trying to work with the Commonwealth”.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has failed to front the public following the release of the damning Justice Alan Blow review into NT Police senior employment practices, issuing a statement to claim she will accept the report’s six recommendations, but making no mention of why she failed to set it up as a proper inquiry, which the NT Police Association said fell “well short of what was expected”.
The Darwin ship lift project, initiated by the Giles CLP government in 2015, has seen the cost to complete the project increase to an estimated $820 million now, with the real possibility it could be over $1 billion by the time it’s completed, while a leading economist has raised financial management concerns.
Two Northern Territory Government departments have refused to explain the contradictions contained in an internal government report into a breach of fracking legislation by Empire Energy – now called Beetaloo Energy Australia – which involved one department sending a letter to “encourage behaviour change” after considering prosecution of the matter, while the other considered the company had done nothing wrong but still took action “to ensure it does not happen again”.
The CLP Government has ordered a three-day “visibility operation” across the Darwin bus network aimed at cracking down on ‘anti-social behaviour’ at “known hot spots and problematic bus routes”, but critics say it’s another “intimidation tactic” targeting vulnerable people.
Education Minister Jo Hersey has become the first CLP minister to admit using the taxpayer-funded white car chauffeur service for a personal trip, raising the prospect of other potential misuse by ministers, but claims she received advice from a body that has nothing to do with the car service that her personal trip to Casuarina was “within the guidelines”, even if “it doesn’t probably float with the public”.
The CLP Government says it will put parents of students who consistently fail to attend school under income management, with critics arguing reinstating the old policy will cause more problems, while questions have also been raised about how the NT Government will enforce the policy and whether the Federal Government was involved in its development.
A 4WD owned by a member of the public allegedly rammed into the side of a stolen ute with children inside, including a 16-year-old driver, in an attempt to stop it after a two-hour dangerous driving rampage that included a campdraft camp in Tennant Creek where it almost ran over three small children, sources have told the NT Independent, while NT Police has provided an account of how the stolen ute was stopped that does not match the photographs of the damaged vehicles.
A man is in a serious condition after being struck in a hit-and-run at Docker River on Sunday morning while the alleged offender still on the run, NT Police said.
Facebook posts showing Public Employment Minister Jo Hersey attending union protest rallies against the previous Labor government’s public service pay freeze have contradicted her claims the union failed to fight against the 2022 pay freeze, but the Minister is now criticising unions for donating to Labor’s 2024 election campaign, which all comes amid a bitter battle over a new contract for public servants.
Three men have been charged for allegedly stealing up to 400 head of cattle from a station in central Australia in August, NT Police said.
