Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has once again publicly denied the Cyclone Tracy 50th anniversary monument – which the Federal Government provided $600,000 to create – is actually a monument or a memorial for one of Australia’s worst natural disasters, adding that a secret VIP event the council organised to unveil it was not actually an “event”, after facing intense public outrage.
Former Northern Land Council chief executive officers Joe Martin-Jard and Marion Scrymgour have both said they have not been approached by the National Anti-Corruption Commission about an investigation it is conducting into the land council, after raids on its Darwin offices last month and amid questions on Friday at Senate Estimates hearings.
The interim chief executive officer of the Anindilyakwa Land Council has said it is his “understanding” that the former CEO Mark Hewitt is under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
Two police officers attempting to enforce the CLP Government’s new nuisance public drinking laws were allegedly assaulted by members of a group drinking in a park, with one female officer punched in the face and another having a metal pole thrown at him, NT Police said.
A Charles Darwin University staffer who publicly criticised the CLP Government in an op-ed for acting like “dictators” who engage in “shady” politics, has been rebuked by vice-chancellor Scott Bowman from China in his own opinion piece, in which he wrote that he was impressed by everything the CLP is doing, including a proposal to give an unelected bureaucrat the ability to override environmental regulations.
Basketball Australia senior executives have visited Darwin to assess the financial situation of the sport and how to manage it in the future, following the exposure of a financial crisis, the head of the peak body has said, and amid reports the Darwin Salties will not return next year.
Four years after finding deliberate non-compliance of campaign financial disclosure laws by the NT’s political parties and donors, the NT Electoral Commission has again ordered an audit of the major political parties, independents and other election participants to ensure they properly disclosed their donations and expenditure at the 2024 NT election.
Cyclone Tracy survivors will be excluded from a secret VIP-only unveiling ceremony for the controversial taxpayer-funded Cyclone Tracy 50th anniversary memorial sculpture, an event driven by Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis, with some survivors calling for dignitaries to boycott it.
A 13-year-old boy has been arrested and charged in relation to the possession of stolen property from a Darwin home and sharing material on social media about the break-in, NT Police said.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government has “betrayed the trust of thousands” by scrapping the plan to underground power lines across Darwin, the Opposition says, while the government said “it looks like” it has found $200 million in savings from “deferring” that project and others, but their figures do not appear to add up.
Two interstate high-risk work assessors brought to the NT to train an undisclosed number of employees at different companies were not accredited under NT law, NT WorkSafe has revealed, urging all businesses and workers to thoroughly verify the accreditation of assessors before investing in high-risk training.
Nearly 400 people in Katherine were scanned last week by police using metal detecting “wands” that led to 20 “positive indications for weapons”, NT Police said.
