Chief Minister Eva Lawler has drawn the ire of environmental groups and traditional owners after the NT Government granted environmental approvals for Tamboran Resources to start fracking the Beetaloo Sub-basin, with critics calling on the Federal Government to enact water trigger laws to stop the project from proceeding.
The Lawler Government has awarded the $154 million contract to build the Alice Spring’s national Aboriginal art gallery to Sitzler, at the same cost it first announced two years ago, which is at the low end of a 2019 cost range estimate, but the government will not say much Darwin’s Civic and State Square development will cost to complete, despite earlier pledging to reveal the cost.
The ICAC Inspector’s investigation into the conduct of anti-corruption commissioner Michael Riches and his failure to disclose domestic violence allegations needs to be done “quickly”, Chief Minister Eva Lawler says, but would not commit to a full independent investigation into his conduct and would not say when the Inspector’s report would be made public.
Two Alice Springs paramedics feared for their lives, and the life of their patient, when they were threatened by a bystander with a knife, the union representing paramedics said.
The NT Police Association has backed Commissioner Michael Murphy after he failed to investigate racist material last year and lied to the public about it, with the union’s boss saying Mr Murphy has done “everything to rectify the situation”, but was unable to point to one instance in which the NTPA has publicly criticised the Commissioner specifically for any issue.
The postponement of Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation until after the next election by the Lawler Labor Government has left the NT as the only jurisdiction in Australia without VAD laws, after the ACT passed its bill on Wednesday.
Calls are mounting for ICAC Michael Riches to resign or be sacked by the Chief Minister, after revelations he paid his estranged wife $20,000 to ensure a domestic violence order never made it to court and failed to disclose the allegation, while a leading national integrity expert says the only way to restore the public’s confidence in the Office of the ICAC is to “put a broom through it”.
Several Australian Ford dealers still have a video of self-confessed dog rapist and killer Dr Adam Britton promoting the company’s Ranger ute on their Facebook pages, while Ford Malaysia have today removed the video from its Facebook page.
The Lawler Government has given a special reserve status to the Jabiluka area in Kakadu National Park which would disallow uranium mining but it will likely not come into effect as Energy Resources Australia has said it had applied to renew its Jabiluka mineral lease which would void the protection.
The NT’s anti-corruption commissioner Michael Riches was so afraid his career would be over after being served with a domestic violence order in May 2023, that he offered to pay his estranged wife $20,000 to ensure the matter never made it to the courts, according to a report in The Australian, while the NT Independent can confirm he did not disclose the matter to the ICAC Inspector.
UPDATED: A 43-year-old man has been charged with murder, rape and breaching a domestic violence order in connection to the death of a woman in Coconut Grove on Saturday afternoon, NT Police said.
Charles Darwin University has been given free land by the NT Government for a new student accommodation facility in the Darwin CBD, which it says will take two years to build, without any explanation as to why the government or university did not start on it two years ago amid a shortage of rental properties and as the new city campus nears completion.
