Law & order

April is Sexual Assault Awareness month with this year’s themes being Drawing Connections and Prevention Demands Equity. On Wednesday the Barkly Sexual Assault Referral Centre team held a Community BBQ in Peko Park to raise awareness in the community that sexual violence is not okay and that there is support available for those that are affected by it.

The Tennant Creek Watch House will undergo a $11.5 million redevelopment as part of the Territory Labor Government’s investment to improve police resources in Budget 2023. The Territory Government committed $3.4 million to redevelop the Watch House in 2019 as part of the Barkly Regional Deal, however it was subsequently deemed that a full replacement of the facility was required.

The Clarence River Fishermen’s Co-Operative faces losing one third of its annual income due to the ban on commercial fishing in the Clarence River following the detection of the white spot virus at Palmers Island prawn farms ... On Monday April 17, Federal Member for Page, Kevin Hogan and State Member for Clarence, Richie Williamson called on the Federal and State Labor Governments to provide immediate financial assistance to the Clarence commercial fishing and aquaculture industry.

For months protesters have been fighting for logging to be halted in Doubleduke State Forest in Bungawalbin. NSW Environmental Authority announced the decision to stop logging on April 16 ... “The inspection identified that Forestry Corporation of NSW had not mapped two giant trees in accordance with the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval and Protocols,” EPA regulatory operations director Steve Orr said.

Jesse Wray-McCann. When a 200-kilometre drive from one end of your policing patch to the other is the same distance as travelling a quarter of the way across Victoria, it pays to be close to your community and your colleagues. The 10 police officers across six stations – Donald, Charlton, Wycheproof, Culgoa, Sea Lake and Birchip – that make up the Buloke Shire cluster make it their mission to keep connected with everyone around them.

Catherine Grimley. On Wednesday night as he was playing a game of eight ball at the Memo Club, local identity Greg "Wheelie" Jordan received an alert on his home security app that there were unwanted visitors in his yard ... his modified car was stolen and home ransacked ... upset and angry he is victim a second time ... feels he has no option but to give up his beloved eight ball and become a prisoner in his own home until he is able to sell up and leave town.

Emma Pritchard, Rodney Stevens. High school students will be banned from using mobile phones at school from Term Four 2023 in an election commitment from the Minns Labor government designed to improve students learning and social development ... While students will still be able to carry their mobile phones to and from school, the ban will apply during class, recess, and lunch ... I don’t really agree with it: Cooper.

The State Government is set to unveil a new plan to address the recent increase in youth crime and anti-social behaviour in Port Augusta ... Staffed by skilled workers the Youth Outreach team will support young people who need help, assist them to find a safe place, and focus on increasing support services to those young people who need them.

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.