In case you missed it, we’ve wrapped up the biggest stories we reported for you this week: A teenager escapes jail for a machete attack on a girl; the Chief Minister admits the real reason for the Parrtjima festival’s cancellation; the NT’s suicide rates continue to be the highest in Australia; and the hit-and-run driver who turned himself into police. These and more in just two minutes of reading.

‘This was an awful attack on a defenceless child using a highly dangerous weapon’: Court

A teenage man has narrowly avoided jail time despite carrying out an “awful attack” with a machete that left a 12-year-old girl in hospital for six months.

The 18-year-old’s case was heard in the Supreme Court this week, nearly two years after the unbridled attack in Galiwinku.

Chief Justice Michael Grant said he was “not convinced at all” the youth did not present any risk of re-offending, despite a clean record for almost two years on bail under supervision at an outstation.

‘This was an awful attack on a defenceless child using a highly dangerous weapon’: Court

Gunner lets slip the real reason for relocation of Parrtjima events

Chief Minister Michael Gunner has finally revealed that the real reason Alice Springs’ Parrtjima Festival events were cancelled and relocated from the centre of town was due to concerns around crime and public safety.

Last week, NT Major Events called off a string of events due to take place at Todd Mall in the centre of Alice Springs’ CBD, and relocated many more than eight kms away to Desert Park.

Creative director of Parrtjima Festival Rhonda Roberts stated on ABC Radio last week that three cars had driven through the highly populated mall at “high speed” following the screening of a movie that raised safety concerns.

Gunner lets slip the real reason for relocation of Parrtjima events

Ludmilla dumping ground: Who is responsible for tonnes of toxic rubble on protected land?

More than 15 years after hundreds of tonnes of toxic rubble first began to amass on conservation protected land in Ludmilla, next to an Indigenous community, questions remain over why it is still there and who is responsible.

Despite hundreds of Darwin residents passing the stockpile daily as they commute to work along Dick Ward Drive, and reports of children playing in the ruins tarnished with deadly asbestos, the site is nowhere close to being remediated.

In correspondence with a concerned resident last year, Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler said the “Government stands with the Darwin community in wanting to ensure the matter is appropriately addressed”.

Ludmilla dumping ground: Who is responsible for tonnes of toxic rubble on protected land?

NT suicide rates still high nearly halfway through NT Government’s prevention plan

Rates of suicide in the Northern Territory continue to lead the nation as the NT Government’s “scattergun approach” has delayed meaningful change, Mission Australia says.

Despite the government now being almost halfway through its five-year suicide prevention plan, Mission Australia NT’s manager Michael Soler says Indigenous people are still three times more likely to die by suicide, and youth living in Katherine have some of the highest rates in the western world.

The NT Government released its second Suicide Prevention Report Card last week, a 28-page glossy dossier mapping out achievements over the past 24 months, but lacked any hard data to measure its effectiveness.

NT suicide rates still high nearly halfway through NT Government’s prevention plan

Remote policing: NTPA says long-term changes needed to get cops out bush

Long-neglected remote police stations, decrepit housing and the lack of development opportunities are the real reasons the NT Police executive can’t fill crucial remote policing positions, the NT Police Association says.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker claimed this week that potential federal funding cuts to remote policing services in 2022 was the cause of current severe understaffing issues in remote NT communities.

But an internal police memo, obtained by the NT Independent, shows the department has been trying to entice current members to the bush with promises of reduced terms – cut in half from 24 months to 12 – if they take a remote position before the end of the month.

Remote policing: NTPA says long-term changes needed to get cops out bush

‘Only a matter of time’: Alleged hit-and-run driver turns himself in

A man who is alleged to have almost killed a five-year-old boy after striking him with his car on Vanderlin Drive, sending him flying into the air, has turned himself in to police.

The man, 22, turned himself into police last night and will face court today.

Witnesses to the incident said the driver of a silver Ford Falcon had struck the child riding a scooter on Monday afternoon and fled the scene, leaving him in a critical condition.

‘Only a matter of time’: Alleged hit-and-run driver turns himself in