CLP Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby released a secret ICAC report in Parliament Thursday that probed the NT Police’s and DPP’s pursuit of former children’s commissioner Colleen Gwynne for hiring a mate for a senior job, finding the previous Labor government entered into an undisclosed payout deal with Ms Gwynne after her trial was aborted, but before the DPP could appeal the judge’s decision.
The CLP Government announced it will move to recover $39 million in unpaid rent from public housing tenants and expediting evictions for those involved in antisocial behaviour, aiming to promote accountability among all tenants, but community groups remain concerned that evicting tenants will not significantly reduce crime at public housing complexes.
An alleged member of the Mongols was arrested for drug offences on Friday, in connection to a Gangs Task Force raid of a Palmerston residence last month that resulted in the seizure of more than $130,000 in cash and 60g of Ecstasy tablets, NT Police said.
Disgraced former NT Police detective Wayne Newell pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to harass when he appeared in Darwin Local Court this week.
US Marines have arrived in Darwin this week, marking the beginning of a six-month deployment for training and operations as an air-ground taskforce.
The Territory now has a ‘Coordinator’, following a late-night session of Parliament that saw the CLP Government use its numbers to pass the controversial legalisation that will create a new government position with the powers to circumvent existing public safeguards, that Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said would “redefine the way business is done in the Northern Territory”.
Police commissioner Michael Murphy has been officially terminated from the role, the Chief Minister has said, although there was no update provided on when a new commissioner will be hired and how that hiring panel will be managed.
A fresh five-year Designated Area Migration Agreement has been established for the Northern Territory, enabling employers to access more overseas workers until June 30, 2030, significantly increasing the number of eligible occupations from 135 to 325.
The ICAC’s report into Police Commissioner Michael Murphy’s improper conduct in hiring a mate for a senior police executive role has contradicted Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s account of events, raising more questions about why she chose not to take any action against the commissioner for more than a week and initially remained silent on the scandal.
Sonia Kennon, the wife of Police Commissioner Michael Murphy’s good mate Peter Kennon, whose promotion led to the downfall of the top cop, was herself promoted twice over a short period of time under the Murphy regime, taking her into the lower reaches of management after allegedly failing the Senior Sergeant’s exam multiple times before that requirement for promotion was removed, sources have told the NT Independent.
Police are looking for a perpetrator who broke into a Alice Springs business and stole cash and a safe, NT Police said.
Territorians will pay for a high-priced Melbourne lawyer to defend senior government executive Andrew Kirkman’s actions at an upcoming Federal Circuit Court hearing in Darwin, after another court found he threatened to blackmail a female staffer and inflicted a mental health injury on her while engaging in “aggressive” and “threatening” behaviour in 2021.
