"The decision to report a family member suspected of child sexual offending to the authorities is often agonising, and much such offending currently goes unreported. The prospect that the offender - and by extension the offender’s family - will be publicly shamed, will be a powerful deterrent to families considering reporting one of their members as an offender."
"There should be no further publication of photographs of the defendant showing her in handcuffs or being placed in the back of a paddy wagon. There should be no suggestions that the defendant is the centrepiece of a web of deception or anything like that. There should be no reference to other suggestions of a scandalous kind and in particular as to the defendant’s relationship with the former Police Commissioner, ministers or former ministers of the Crown or their staffers." Acting Justice Dean Mildren, The Queen v Kamitsis [2015] NTSC 48.
Kumanjayi Langdon, a sick, middle-aged Aboriginal man, was treated like a criminal and incarcerated like a criminal; he died in a police cell which was built to house criminals ... he was always likely to die suddenly due to chronic and serious heart disease, but he was entitled to die as a free man.
"I'm mystified why the Territory and Federal governments haven't sent the troops in to help with the utter devastation in Arnhem Land. We have Robertson Barracks in Darwin that is full of troops on standby to do this kind of work. We have people living with no water, no power and in houses that have been smashed by fallen trees and they need help and now." Alastair King, CEO, Arnhem Land Progress Association
"I enjoyed having a night off and getting hammered ... the level of incompetence of these people is just madness. It was absolute madness, mindless stupidity and political immaturity." Adam Giles reflects on politics, a failed coup and a big night in.
Gulag NT spends more money per capita on Police and Corrections than any other Australian jurisdiction. It costs $100,000 per year to house each adult prisoner, and $200,000 for each juvenile. The present CLP Government has just opened its new Superjail (originally commissioned by the previous Labor Government) at a cost of $1 billion-plus. The Attorney-General has said it will ultimately cost the taxpayer $1.8B and take 30 years to pay off. It is the largest-ever NT Government outlay for a capital works project. Meanwhile, the present Government regularly makes significant cuts to education and health services. The Superjail is built to hold 1100 prisoners and is already close to full, so it won’t be long until another will be required.
The Territory has very few friends “down south”, where we have come to be seen as over-indulged redneck mendicant whingers, sucking endlessly on the public nipple of taxpayer generosity. Suspending NT self-government would be a popular decision in most parts of Australia.
"There is no doubt the Country Liberals have been divided for many, many, many years on a range of different areas, policy and structural and personalities ... What we have seen as a result of last night is a party completely disintegrate in terms of different factions, warring factions." Adam Giles, 3 February 2015.
I won't take their shit anymore. The NT education department has thrown everything at me—legal cases, angry letters, kicked me out of my house and job, tried to bleed me dry with legal costs and I had to move to another state to do the job I love—but I'm still standing and I can laugh at them now.
“We thought it was my brother, opened the body bag and I saw a different face. A woman’s body. Then I closed it up and put the body bag back in the freezer and we came out and stopped the funeral.”
