Category Archives: Northern Territory

Plastics campaigners warn Australia’s pledge at UN needs to be matched with ‘high ambition at home’

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Environment minister Murray Watt is returning from oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and ratify a treaty to protect the high seas

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The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, is returning from a UN oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and make good on Australia’s promise to ratify a treaty to protect the high seas.

The five-day meeting in Nice, France finished on Friday, and conservationists celebrated some key steps towards protecting wildlife in international waters.

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Port of Darwin operator says Albanese and Dutton are treating it like ‘a political football’ in election

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Labor and Coalition would both end Chinese company Landbridge’s long-term lease of strategically important asset

The Chinese company that controls the Port of Darwin has accused Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton of treating it like “a political football” in the middle of a federal election campaign.

Federal Labor and the Coalition have both announced that if elected on 3 May they would end Landbridge’s long-term lease of the Port of Darwin, arguing it is strategically important and should be controlled by an Australian entity.

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Albanese declares Chinese-controlled Port of Darwin should ‘be in Australian hands’

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PM says two options on table: for an Australian-owned company to take control, or for port to return to being a government asset

The Labor government is on the hunt for a buyer for the port of Darwin despite the Chinese-owned company who holds the lease insisting it is not for sale.

Anthony Albanese revealed the plan after calling in to local Darwin radio on Friday afternoon in a deliberate attempt to get ahead of a similar announcement the Coalition made on Saturday.

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Indigenous leaders celebrate as court rejects appeal in landmark Yunupingu compensation case

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High court upholds ruling against commonwealth that Gumatj clan’s land was not acquired ‘on just terms’, in case initiated by renowned land rights activist

Traditional owners say justice has been served for their people as the high court dismissed a commonwealth appeal in a landmark compensation case.

The commonwealth lost the high court battle over whether it may be liable for up to $700m in compensation for bauxite mining at Gove in north-east Arnhem Land.

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Northern Territory’s growing saltwater crocodile population gorging on nine times more prey than 50 years ago

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Research shows apex predators are increasing in numbers and excreting important nutrients into Top End waterways

The growing saltwater crocodile population in the Northern Territory has led to the creatures gorging on nine times more prey than they did 50 years ago, with the apex predators contributing important nutrients to Top End waterways, new research suggests.

Saltwater crocodile populations have increased exponentially in recent decades, from less than 3,000 in 1971, when a ban on hunting was introduced, to more than 100,000 animals today.

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NT police commissioner ousted amid jobs-for-mates scandal

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Michael Murphy outed himself as subject of Icac investigation that found he had mismanaged a conflict of interest

The Northern Territory’s police commissioner has been given his marching orders after a jobs-for-mates scandal uncovered by a corruption watchdog.

Michael Murphy outed himself as the subject of an Independent Commissioner Against Corruption investigation that found improper and unsatisfactory conduct against an unnamed public official who had mismanaged a conflict of interest in the recruitment of a senior officer.

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Hot nights expected in southern Australian states as heatwave sweeps east

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‘Prolonged period of oppressive heat’ could push temperatures to mid 40C in South Australia, and mid 30C in Melbourne and Hobart

A heatwave marked by high humidity and hot nights will hit southern Australia next week as heat that baked western parts of the country moves east.

The period of intense heat for southern and central Australia is forecast to begin from Monday and last until Thursday, with South Australia, southern parts of the Northern Territory and far western parts of Queensland bearing the brunt.

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‘A hugely significant sighting’: red goshawk photographed for first time in central Australia

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Bird snapped by Newhaven wildlife sanctuary ecologist is likely a juvenile on risky 1,500km journey away from parents, expert says

Recent wet weather in the arid plains of central Australia prompted the wildlife ecologist and bird enthusiast Dr Tim Henderson to stop last week at a small lake to see if any waterbirds had shown up.

While there, above his head came a sight many birdwatchers wait a lifetime for: the red goshawk, Australia’s rarest bird of prey. It had a throat full of food, and was in a location it had never been photographed and had not been recorded at for about 30 years.

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Butler urges NSW psychiatrists ‘come back to the table’ – as it happened

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Dutton continues rounds on breakfast television

The opposition leader Peter Dutton has been making the rounds this morning, also speaking with the Today Show.

We need to do what is right in our country’s economic interests. We have to have the settings so that people can invest here. And at the moment, when we speak to CEOs and chairs of companies … what they’re doing is moving capital away from Australia into south-east Asia, into Africa, into North America, and we’re missing out on the tax dollars and the jobs here in Australia.

It’s a question of how much money is in the bank and how much can we responsibly give back, because in the end, it’s people’s money. People are working hard for it.

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Southern Ocean winds to break stifling heatwave baking Australia’s south-east

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Front dragging warm air from the Pilbara brings ‘particularly hot’ weather to SA, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania

Winds from the Southern Ocean will bring relief on Monday to parts of south-eastern Australia sweltering through a three-day heatwave.

A heatwave warning for South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania was issued by the Bureau of Meteorology for the weekend as temperatures were expected to spike in some parts to 40C.

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All the 1 January changes in Australia: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also in 1 Jan changes

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

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All the 1 January changes coming to Australia in 2025: Centrelink increases, import bans and pay rises

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Bigger Austudy and carer allowance payments, higher Medicare safety net thresholds and mandatory corporate reporting on climate also ahead

With the new year comes new policies, laws, taxes and reforms. Here’s everything to know about changes on 1 January, 2025 that could affect you.

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Zachary Rolfe’s ego played a part in Kumanjayi Walker’s shooting death, NT coroner told

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Coroner urged not to ‘sugarcoat’ police officer’s actions as inquest nears end

Zachary Rolfe’s ego “had a lot to do with” the death of Kumanjayi Walker, and the former police officer “invented” evidence about the Warlpiri man attempting to take his gun before the fatal shooting, a court has heard.

The inquest into the death of Walker is holding its final hearings, almost two years after it was due to be completed.

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‘Crisis’ of domestic violence in NT needs immediate action, advocates say after landmark report released

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Northern Territory domestic homicide rate seven times the national rate, with systemic failings contributing to deaths, coroner’s report finds

Women’s safety advocates are urging governments and the police to take immediate action after a landmark coroner’s report exposed systemic failings that contributed to the deaths of four Aboriginal women in the Northern Territory.

The NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage on Monday handed down findings into the deaths of Miss Yunupiŋu, Ngeygo Ragurrk, Kumarn Rubuntja and Kumanjayi Haywood, making 35 recommendations aimed at stemming what she called the “epidemic of violence”.

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No adverse findings in probe into elite Northern Territory police triggered by offensive ‘awards’

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Corruption watchdog rules out further investigation into racism within the force despite evidence of historical racial discrimination

WARNING: This article contains offensive content

A corruption watchdog has closed an investigation into racism within the Northern Territory police force’s elite tactical response group with no adverse findings despite uncovering historical evidence of race-based discrimination.

The probe was triggered after former constable Zachary Rolfe attempted to prove the force’s ingrained culture of racism, using as evidence a historical racist mock-award handed out in the group to the officer who behaved “most like an Aboriginal”.

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Four foreign nationals removed from Australia after reportedly being found on remote NT island

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Australian government won’t say if four reportedly found on Croker Island have been taken to country of departure, of origin, or to regional processing centre on Nauru

Four non-citizens reportedly found on remote Croker Island in the Northern Territory have been removed from Australia.

The ABC reported the four foreign nationals were found on Monday on the island north of Garig Gunak Barlu national park, near Arnhem land.

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More than half of Australia sweats through heatwave as BoM forecasts more scorching temperatures

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BoM expects hot weather to continue across parts of Queensland, Western Australia and Northern Territory next week

More than half of Australia is sweating through a heatwave, with scorching temperatures in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory expected this weekend.

Huge stretches of outback across northern Australia had been warned by the Bureau of Meteorology to expect heatwave conditions stretching into next week.

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Heatwave to turn parts of Australia into ‘one of the hottest places in the world’ this week

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Some of the east coast and the north will bake in a furnace of potentially life-threatening heat, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts

A heatwave is due to strike Australia’s east coast, with temperatures expected above 40C, making the country’s north “one of the hottest places in the world” this week, the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast.

Residents in northern New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory are being warned to brace for unsettled weather through the week, starting on Monday, as a mass of heat moves eastward from central Australia.

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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to pay federal court over delay in defamation defence

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Legal team for NT senator and shadow Indigenous Australians minister failed to file defence on time

The Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been ordered to pay up by the federal court, before a defamation suit against her has properly begun.

The shadow Indigenous Australians minister is being sued by the Central Land Council chief executive, Lesley Turner, over a media release which he claims defamed him.

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Proposed powers to exempt NT projects from environmental assessments criticised as ‘terrifying’ and ‘authoritarian’

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The Labor opposition, conservationists and Indigenous groups have expressed shock at the move

The newly elected Northern Territory government wants to grant itself sweeping new powers to exempt major projects from environmental assessments in a move described by conservationists and Indigenous groups as authoritarian and anti-democratic.

A leaked consultation document, seen by Guardian Australia, outlines how a new Territory Coordinator (TC) would have powers to “step in” and take the role of government agencies to make assessments and approvals and could order other agencies to make decisions within a specific timeframe.

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