The Finocchiaro CLP Government has scrapped nearly a decade-long plan to build the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery of Australia in Alice Springs following an unusual fight with the Federal Government, but no savings are expected to be found after Treasurer Bill Yan indicated the NT Government’s contribution would still be spent on something in the town.
A woman has been charged after she allegedly stabbed another woman at the Palmerston bus interchange this morning, NT Police said.
A Darwin hostel manager has questioned whether the Finocchiaro Government would care more about her if she had been killed during a violent bashing allegedly at the hands of a man who was described as “not safe to be released into the general community”, who was booked into her hostel by a government contractor without disclosing his violent history, adding the government was “causing crime” by neglecting its responsibilities.
Two 10-year-olds, an 11-year-old, and a 14-year-old were allegedly in a stolen car stopped by tyre spikes in Alice Springs, but officers also accidentally shredded the tyres of another car, NT Police said, which is not the first time the wrong car had its tyres slashed.
A 24-hour strike has been scheduled by NT bus drivers for Monday, October 20, following stalled negotiations over a new enterprise agreement between the Transport Workers’ Union and private bus operator CDC.
A long-time public servant IT specialist, part-time musician and fishing enthusiast has been elected the CLP’s third president in two years at the party’s Central Council meeting over the weekend in Alice Springs, which comes amid party turmoil that saw its now outgoing president suddenly withdraw from seeking re-election at the last minute.
Former chief minister Clare Martin has been appointed – not elected – president of Territory Labor amid upheaval in the party, that has seen its elected executive members sacked in the fallout of the internal review into Labor’s 2024 election wipe out, the NT Independent understands, and replaced by six new members, who were also not elected by party members.
EXCLUSIVE: The manager of a Darwin hostel says she is lucky to be alive after being repeatedly kicked in the head by a man who was previously described by a psychiatrist as “not safe to be released into the general community”, but who she said was booked into her accommodation by a government contractor through the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency without disclosing his long history of violence.
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.
