


Environment Minister’s new green mates

Indigenous affairs: Advancement and decline

Land care: Singing country

Car-nage on our highways: 263 dead roos in 250 km
By Dr FIONA WALSH Why do we continue to allow and accept the deaths of animals on our roads? I recognise that global warming, wildfires and floods accelerated by profiteers are beyond the immediate control of many of us. They too hurt many native animals. This was one of only two living kangaroos I saw […]

Union asks Police Commissioner to resign
By ERWIN CHLANDA The entire executive board of the NT Police Association (NTPA) is calling upon Police Commissioner Michael Murphy to tender his resignation. This follows his outing himself as the senior executive public officer found by ICAC to have displayed unsatisfactory conduct in relation to the management of a conflict of interest in a […]

$120m owed in fines by slow payers
By ERWIN CHLANDA Four months after Parliament dealt with $121.5m in unpaid fines just $5.5m has been recovered, about 4%. There are currently “around” 206,000 outstanding fines and infringements, according to a statement in November by Minister for Corporate and Digital Development Joshua Burgoyne. Of this amount, more than $104 million is owed to the […]

Mandatory sentencing misfired spectacularly
By DAVID HANCOCK from his new book Decades in Darwin In 1997, the Northern Territory government commenced a regime of mandatory imprisonment for a range of property offences, including theft, criminal damage, unlawful entry, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, robbery and receiving stolen property. Urged on by a vocal local media, the CLP government, […]

Could Hartley Street building become the new library?
Opinion by historian ALEX NELSON The transfer of Tourism Central Australia into the purpose-built premises of the Alice Springs Public Library is a done deal between the town council and NT Government, but (as Charlie Carter asks) there is as yet no indication of where the library will be temporarily housed and its final destination. There […]

New gun rego to compromise privacy, safety
LETTER TO THE ALICE SPRINGS NEWS Shooters in the NT recently received a letter from the police saying that as part of the Territory’s implementation of the National Firearms Register (NFR), shooters would be asked to complete a form requiring “basic information about the licence holder and details of any firearms owned, such as serial […]

Lawyers agree: XR did not fracture infant’s skull
By ERWIN CHLANDA “It was common ground between the prosecution and the defence during the course of the bail application that XR was not the person in possession of the metal fridge handle which caused the injury to the infant, and was not the person who caused that injury.” That was part of a four […]

Joining forces to save tourism industry
By ERWIN CHLANDA The town’s focus in 2025 will be on a fight for survival of the travel industry and the nearly 400 members of Tourism Central Australia will need to join forces. That was the unanimous view of the 150 people who attended the organisation’s AGM yesterday evening. The trade’s doyen, Brendan Heenan, who […]

Drown out the negative, seal Mereenie loop
By ERWIN CHLANDA Patrick Bedford, now the longest serving – five years – chairperson of Tourism Central Australia, will be calling for “new thinking” when he is addressing the Tourism Towards 2030 conference tomorrow. He told the Alice Springs News that for too long the region has been portrayed in the media and online platforms as […]

Offroad club starts season with test & tune
By PADDY WEIR The first event of the year for the Alice Springs Offroad Race Club (ASORRC) might have been a bit lighter on entries than the club had hoped – eight Offroad cars – yet the enthusiasm of the competitors, their crew and spectators more than made up. This was a test and tune event, […]