The first sitting of the Northern Territory Parliament under the new Finocchiaro Government will begin on October 15, and run for two weeks, with the government saying it will introduce its promised bail reforms, decrease the age of criminal responsibility, and bring in minimum mandatory sentences for assaulting frontline workers in the first week
The CLP Government’s director of communications is being paid more money than the NT’s head of nursing and midwifery and more than every new CLP minister, the NT Independent can reveal, with former NT News editor Matt Williams given the plum gig by Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro that pays up to $300,000 a year, despite having no experience as a political adviser.
The Territory’s anti-corruption watchdog’s suspension following alleged “inappropriate behaviour” towards several female staffers will end on Sunday, before the investigation into his alleged conduct is complete, while Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has refused to comment on whether he will be reinstated to the role on Monday.
A 49-year-old man has been charged after allegedly threatening to kill a man in an Alice Springs shopping centre, then attempting to strike him with an “edged weapon”, NT Police said.
Darwin Salties basketball team’s general manager Matt Nason has quit the club roughly 10 months into the role, while Basketball Queensland would not comment on whether the team would remain in the NBL1 North league next season, with questions over the club’s solvency having been previously raised after it was given roughly $1.25 million combined from the NT Government and two NT basketball organisations in less than two-and-a-half years.
A Supreme Court judge has found a Local Court judge’s reasons for finding a police officer slipped her finger into a woman’s vagina during a search for drugs and jewellery to be inadequate, setting aside the judgment, and calling for the matter to be reheard in the lower court again before a different judge.
A 21-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly kicking a bus driver in the head while he was driving along the Stuart Highway through Pinelands on Tuesday afternoon, NT Police said.
Existing “infrastructure” could be used to house overflow prisoners who are being held in police watch houses, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has said, but her government remained silent on the potential for using the old Berrimah jail when youth prisoners are moved out next month, while the former chief minister told the police union in April there were no immediate solutions to the problem.
Wulagi Supermarket and its director Vinay Madasu have been ordered by the Federal Court to pay more than $100,000 in fines and repayments after it underpaid a worker for 18 months of work.
A 26-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly stabbing a woman he did not know in the back while she walked down the street in a remote NT community on Monday afternoon, NT Police said.
The CLP Government’s proposal to reduce the age of criminal responsibility will result in increased youth crime and elevated rates of Indigenous incarceration in the NT, the federal Productivity Commission has warned, while the Chief Minister has defended the move, calling critics “political commentators” bent on creating a “scare campaign”.
Experts in law, justice, health education and social services will descend on Katherine this week to engage locals and help find solutions for the town’s crime issues, as part of a justice symposium held by Flinders University, that locals are eagerly anticipating given ongoing problems in the community.
