NT Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Andrew Warton has been given an unspecified amount of time over the fire season to take a ‘sabbatical’ to run Australia’s Casey Research Station in Antarctica, after only seven months in the top job, while the firefighter’s union has said the three most senior NT Fire roles have not been permanently filled 10 months after the new agency was started.
The CLP Government is expected to announce it will change current legislation to permit “probationary” corrections officers into the job without having to complete current training requirements, a move criticised by the union as raising serious safety issues for the public and officers, while also taking the “first step towards privatisation” of the NT’s jails.
The police force is at “crisis point” and is “haemorrhaging” officers, the NT Police Association has said, calling on Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro to pay officers more, improve their working conditions, and immediately address chronic understaffing in a public pitch before a new enterprise agreement is negotiated.
The Territory’s hospitals will get a one-off cash injection of $51 million this year as part of the Albanese Labor Government’s national funding boost, which the government said was done to strengthen Medicare and support public hospitals.
EXCLUSIVE: CLP Education Minister Jo Hersey took a luxury private jet between Katherine and Darwin to attend a boozy, “bottomless” high tea at the Hilton Garden Inn Darwin in early December, but she claims no taxpayer money was expended despite posting photos of the jaunt on her government-funded social media account, which comes as the Minister was also caught out misleading Territorians about her disclosable interests.
The CLP Government and the Labor Opposition have not ruled out supporting independent MLA Justine Davis’s calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the rorting of a government Indigenous employment scheme that saw an estimated $60 million fraudulently obtained by up to 146 Territory contractors.
The CLP Government will plunge the Territory into further debt rather than find necessary cost savings of $450 million a year, with Treasurer Bill Yan proclaiming the move “responsible action to repair the budget”.
Two men have been charged over Monday’s shooting in Coconut Grove, another person who was arrested has been released, while the gun that was used has not been found, NT Police said.
An independent MLA has called for a full parliamentary inquiry into how $60 million was stolen from Territory taxpayers through the Indigenous Employment Provisional Sum scheme, with only $900,000 recovered and two small-time contractors jailed for rorting $300,000, while larger companies suspected of obtaining millions were never charged.
Suspended ICAC Michael Riches did not investigate NT Health Department findings of nepotism in procurement and recruitment processes that it identified may warrant criminal prosecution, and instead conducted a “review” two years after the department raised its concerns, with the corruption watchdog finally making four “best practice” recommendations, while providing “guidance” to support ethical practices and thanking staff.
UPDATED: Airnorth is launching direct flights between Cairns and Alice Springs, with an undisclosed subsidy from taxpayers, while tickets started being sold on Monday for the first flight on April 14.
More than 2,300 illegal nicotine vapes worth $140,000 and an undisclosed amount of marijuana were seized by NT Police on Friday, following a raid of a Palmerston residence after a tip-off that illicit substances were at the house.
