Law & order

A petition has been launched following the announcement of the Breaking Online Notoriety Bill being introduced into Parliament this week. The Federal Member for Groom, Garth Hamilton is asking residents to show their support for the Bill by signing the petition, which calls on all parliamentarians to back the Bill.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles announced urgent bail legislation will be introduced to parliament which will see a new presumption against bail for violent offences involving a weapon. There will also be a presumption against bail for co-offenders who participate in violent offences involving a weapon, even if they do not possess the weapon themselves.

Last month Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development compliance officers conducted a joint operation with Lancelin Police to apprehend people fishing for marron in the Moore River ... The fishers were busted with more than 30 pieces of fishing gear and were fishing out of season, which makes any marron fishing activity illegal.

What is a sacred site? According to the government, sacred sites are places within the landscape that have a special meaning or significance under Aboriginal tradition. Hills rocks, waterholes, trees, plains, lakes, billabongs and other natural features can be sacred sites ... When heritage moves from easily identifiable caves, rock art, convict buildings and federation houses to mythical spaces that are not registered on published maps, widely known and regularly visited, then we face endless abuse of process, as everything everywhere becomes sacred with a price attached to any disturbance.

The frequent claim by police that it cannot act on street kids unless they are committing a crime does not seem to hold water for the person in the street when they look at Territory legislation ... These issues have been broadly discussed in Alice Springs for years, including in an ongoing campaign by Tourism Central Australia (TCA), representing the region’s economic lifeblood. “If a child is on the street at 2am or even later, they should come under the care of the Government,” says TCA’s CEO, Danial Rochford.

Unruly youths have struck Tennant Creek’s most vulnerable again, this time a much-respected volunteer of the community. Adrian Calyun is well-known around Tennant Creek as a volunteer, teacher and youth worker, and last Friday night he was victim to theft and vandalism.

Police called a media conference on 20 March 2023 to discuss the death in custody at Casino Police Station yesterday, Sunday, March 19. Despite questions from several news outlets at the conference, Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna did not reveal any new information about the death of the 48 year old man ... On Sunday, the man was taken to the station after reports he had assaulted another man at the Casino Showground.

Dr Simon Quilty. Today, National Close the Gap Day, while there is a lot of focus on alcohol, crime and violence in communities such as Alice Springs, it is the long-term, underlying issues that are the real problem here. We are definitely experiencing difficulty in attracting, retaining and housing health professionals right across the NT, addressing this issue in isolation of the greater social disparity only makes the problem worse.

The Memo Club Manager has called for action after the windows of the Club’s courtesy bus were smashed by youths throwing huge rocks, for the third time in months. Now the Memo has no choice but to halt its popular bus service out of safety of its staff and patrons and is now looking at the expense of installing plexiglass over the windows.

"Premier Palaszczuk was telling parliament about how she listens to Queenslanders, so I called out and reminded her that she refused to send anyone to represent her government at the community crime forum I ran in Goondiwindi last week," said Mr Lister.

"Farmers and landholders are keen to regenerate millions of kilometres of eroded and degraded watercourses throughout this country, but environmental and planning regulations are preventing many of them from undertaking this valuable work, due to the time and cost of submitting multiple applications, special reports and detailed designs to multiple government authorities for permission to undertake on-ground works," says Mulloon Institute Chairman Gary Nairn A.O.

With no thanks to the Animal Justice Party, all Victorian racetracks, race meetings, trial meetings and racing precincts just got safer. The recent passing in the Victorian Parliament of the Racing Amendment Bill 2022 prohibits the unauthorised access to these places and events and any acts that make them unsafe ... Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, said the legislation targeting the radical, animal rights activists, was overdue.

An international covert operation – including the arrest of three people on the beach south of Moore River – has prevented a record 2.4 tonnes of cocaine from entering Western Australia, according to WA Police. The operation, dubbed Operation Beech, resulted in the arrest of 12 people, with the cocaine linked to a Mexican drug cartel.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has fined 14 furniture importers over $186,000 last week because they didn’t act to minimise the risk of importing illegally harvested timber. Head of Compliance and Enforcement at the department, Peter Timson said Australia has strict requirements for importing timber and it is essential to hold importers to account.

When it comes to dealing with social and crime problems in Alice Springs, what are the legal obligations of government departments and publicly funded NGOs? How well are they following their mission statements? How much taxpayers’ money do they get and how are they spending it?

Today we learned three things: the Banking Code of Practice isn’t worth the paper it is written on, the format for emailing Westpac executives directly and that Anna Bligh’s Australian Banking Association will only engage with journalists who give them an easy run.

Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation launched its regional report on family violence at Nyinkka Nyunyu ... The Working Group uncovered that the Barkly suffers significant levels of all forms of violence which is often going unreported due to a community belief that violence is tolerated.