The Finocchiaro Government has pledged an “extra” $1 million in funding for Legal Aid NT, a day after a homeless man charged with aggravated robbery was reportedly granted bail due to confusion around his trial following Legal Aid cutting his defence funding.
Two 17-year-olds escaped from the Alice Springs youth jail overnight, and are still on the run, with the escape coming in the middle of a prison overcrowding crisis where the youths were set to be moved to Darwin to serve their time.
Territory Labor spent more than $1 million on its 2024 election campaign, new figures released by the NT Electoral Commission show, which was more money than the party raised and $170,000 more than the CLP spent on their campaign, with Labor appearing to spend more than half a million dollars on “staff expenses” and non-print ad design costs.
The Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal will next week hear an urgent application to force Tamboran Resources to pause its Beetaloo Basin fracking operations until a final decision is made on an application to overturn its Shenandoah South fracking approval, the Environment Centre NT has said.
Four teens aged between 13 and 15 who were on bail have been arrested, while other alleged offenders are still on the run, after an alleged attempted car-jacking, multiple burglaries, and the theft of scooters in Darwin overnight, NT Police said.
The Finocchiaro Government has awarded a $360,000 contract to create a Marrara sports precinct master plan aimed partly at infrastructure spending, in the same week Territory Treasurer Bill Yan warned that the previous Labor Government had wasted money on pet projects and throwing money at the “latest, greatest shiny thing”.
Despite a modest rise in economic activity, CommSec’s quarterly State of the States report reveals that the Northern Territory remains firmly established as the country’s worst-performing economy, ranking the NT’s economy eighth out of eight once again.
Corrections officers are a “high chance” to walk off the job this week due to fears for their safety from overcrowded prisons, their union warned, while Corrections Minister Gerard Maley said he supports Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley’s decision to enact “emergency measures” to move prisoners from Alice Springs to Darwin over the weekend despite the threat of industrial action.
A 29-year-old woman has been charged with child exploitation offences after three homes in the Greater Darwin region were raided by a joint police taskforce this month, including the woman’s home in a Palmerston suburb last week, making her the third alleged offender from the ring busted in the last two weeks.
The Finocchiaro CLP Government is proposing new laws to grant ministers and the unelected Territory Coordinator sweeping powers to “step in” on major projects and overrule regulatory processes by departments, ultimately making decisions to approve projects themselves, which critics have labelled “anti-democratic and anti-Territorian”.
The Finocchiaro Government will not say if it will spend close to $20 million to upgrade the Darwin Convention Centre, which was part of a plan by the previous government to get an NBL team for the city, and will also not say if the government will give the troubled Darwin Salties more taxpayer money to allow them to continue.
A 14-year-old male is facing charges after he allegedly indecently assaulted two female paramedics who were helping him in an ambulance, before spitting in the vehicle, NT Police said, and later damaging a medical vehicle and spitting at police.
