A guest post by Marion Scrymgour, Member for Lingiari. This post was originally published in the Sunday Territorian on 24 August 2025 and is re-published here with permission. Something is going wrong in the Northern Territory when the government of the day promotes a planned substantial increase in prison numbers as a winning strategy and [...]
If the NT wants to silence coroners from exposing systemic racism, then the Federal Government must step in. Coroner Elisabeth Armitage (l) and NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro A guest post by George Newhouse* The Northern Territory Government is preparing a response to Coroner Elisabeth Armitage’s detailed inquest findings into the 2019 police shooting of [...]
A guest post by Paul Gregoire. This article was first published by the Sydney Criminal Lawyers website. Released on 7 July 2025, the 683 page coronial report into the killing of Warlpiri Luritja teenager Kumanjayi Walker by then NT police constable Zachary Rolfe, which was produced by NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage, was so damning in its finding [...]
I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that racist terms of abuse like ‘coons’, ‘niggers’ and the like have long been consigned to history’s dustbin of common usage. However, from the recent revelations in Coroner Armitage’s Report into the death of Kumanjayi Walker it seems that was naïve and, at least among a small group [...]
Lisa Siebert & Marion Scrymgour In the 2025 Federal election the NT CLP took one step forward, two steps back … Sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad, bad thing … It was a surprise to no-one that the NT Country Liberal Party was short-priced favourite to win the NT general election [...]
On Monday last – in the midst of an unprecedented leadership crisis in the NT police force and with corrections and the justice system descending into chaos – the NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro was a guest of Katie Woolf’s on her morning show on Darwin commercial radio MIX104.9FM. Katie Woolf is regarded by some [...]
Part Two – Michael Murphy, the Voldemort clause, the Police Union & the NT ICAC This is Part Two of an article examining recent events involving the NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy, the NT ICAC, the NT government and the NT Police Association. You can read Part One here. Operation Apollo & The Voldemort clause [...]
Part One – Michael Murphy and the battle against racism in the NT Police This is Part One of a two part article examining recent events involving the NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy, the NT ICAC, the NT government and the powerful police union the NT Police Association. Part Two will follow in due course. [...]
It was a hot Friday night in October 1979 and a construction crew were well into a session at the Adelaide River Inn, 100 kilometres or so south of Darwin in the Northern Territory, then as now a very comfortable pub set in roomy tree-shaded grounds. Most of the building crew were relaxing with a [...]
NT police issue Glock 22, .40 calibre This Musical Dispatch from the Front is a guest post by my old—in both senses of that word—friend Frank Baarda,* a long-term resident of Yuendumu. Greetings, This is a tale of how IMHO the police should be and how it is. On our odyssey when we returned from [...]
