The latest national news update from the National Indigenous Radio Service.
NT: ‘We can change’: CLP appeal to NT voters
The upcoming Northern Territory election is not about popularity or niceness, but about who will make the hard decisions, chief minister Adam Giles says.
At the CLP campaign launch in Darwin over the weekend Mr Giles acknowledged his government’s first term had “looked messy” and conceded it had made mistakes. But he said unpopular decisions to sell the Territory Insurance Office and lease Darwin Port for 99 years were necessary and had to be made quickly.
The CLP won government in a landslide in 2012, with 16 of 25 seats, but have since lost five members who now sit as independents, having variously accused the government of racism, sexism and misogyny, and broken promises.
Mr Giles is the first Aboriginal person to lead a state or Territory. The NT goes to the polls on August 27.
Escaped NSW prisoners caught in Qld
Three men who escaped from a minimum-security prison in northern NSW have been arrested in the Queensland town of Goondiwindi.
The three men, two aged 20 and the other 22, escaped from the Brewarrina Correctional Centre at about 2.40am on Saturday after allegedly threatening an officer with knives, a hammer and a screwdriver and stealing a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
NSW Police said that at about 11pm on Sunday Queensland police officers were patrolling in Goondiwindi when they saw the men and arrested them without incident.
Top cops front Lindt inquest after delays
The three most senior NSW police during the deadly Sydney siege are finally set to front a coronial inquest after being hit by unexpected delays.
Commissioner Andrew Scipione, his deputy Cath Burn, and acting commissioner Jeff Loy are due to give their highly-anticipated evidence at the Lindt Cafe inquest this week after a series of delays. The inquest gets back underway in Sydney this morning.
Most child sex abuse in out-of-home care
Foster homes, orphanages and other out-of-home care facilities are the most dangerous hotspots for child sexual abuse in Australia, a royal commissioner says.
Justice Peter McClellan, who chairs the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, says out-of-home care is of central concern to the inquiry.
New commission analysis reveals 43 per cent of victims who’ve given evidence the sessions were abused in out-of-home care.
Vic squatters avoid eviction temporarily
Dozens of homeless squatters living in 13 properties in Collingwood, Parkville and Clifton Hill and bought by the Victorian government to build the now dumped East West Link have avoided eviction temporarily.
The squatters were handed eviction notices on Thursday and were going to be removed today. But a court injunction secured on Friday stays in effect until 10.30am today, with court proceedings planned in the coming days, according to the group Houses need people, People need houses.
WA: War of words over WA children’s hospital
A war or words has erupted over the delayed opening of the Perth Children’s hospital, with West Australian Premier Colin Barnett accusing the opposition of trying to undermine the new Perth Children’s Hospital. But opposition spokesman Roger Cook said the premier was merely trying to distract people from his own poor performance.
The hospital, which was originally expected to open last year, has been delayed again after the discovery of asbestos in roof panels made by a Chinese building materials company. Western Australia goes to the polls in March next year.
Carpageddon plan ‘could kill native fish’
Using a herpes virus to infect and wipe out European carp plaguing the Murray River could ultimately kill off native fish as well, a researcher has warned.
The plan, dubbed “Carpageddon”, is planned to begin in late 2018 and will eradicate 95 per cent of the pest’s population over the next 30 years.
While the virus doesn’t affect other fish, University of Adelaide researcher Richie Walsh says that decomposing carp, if they’re left in the water, will dissolve oxygen levels. This will endanger native species such as Murray cod and silver perch, as well as crustaceans.
