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“The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide.” – Chicago Tribune

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Public in the dark about NT statutory bodies

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By ERWIN CHLANDA

The NT Government is refusing to give details about its 70 tribunals, statutory, governing and management boards known as nifty devices for Chief Ministers to funnel cash to buddies.

They are nice little earners considering many are part time jobs: The chair of Tourism NT (Paul Ah Chee), for example, gets $82,363 a year, his deputy $63,356 and other members, $44,349.

That’s plus expenses, of course.

The Darwin Waterfront Corporation Board chair (Alastair Shields) is on the same remittance plus $63,356 a year because he is also chairing the AustralAsia Railway Corporation plus $959 a day for chairing the Racing and Wagering Commission. That can be confirmed from the relevant websites.

Confused? Join the club.

The News downloaded the fees paid by the taxpayer from the web and counted the number of boards – 70 of them.

Then we asked for the name of the chair for each body and the expenditure for each body in year 2025 or in fiscal 24/25.

This is the (non)answer from the Department of the Chief Minister and Cabinet media section (no name given): “We are unable to provide the information requested through a media response. Any request for this information must be made through a formal Freedom of Information (FOI) application.”

Clearly, “unable” should be “unwilling” because no doubt the information would be readily available to CMC which instructs the paying of the board members.

The information available is inadequate because many board members’ pay is quoted as a “daily rate”. No information is given how many days each of these board meets during a year.

Some of these daily rates are hefty: Liquor Commission $959 (chair); Development Consent Authority $719; Planning Commission $959.

Some are modest: Heritage Council $304. Of course, if you get to be appointed to more than one board it soon adds up.

The priority the government is giving to managing the controversial buffel weed may be gauged by the daily fees set for the Buffel Grass Weed Advisory Committee: $304 (chair), $228 (other member).

These remunerations are the lowest on the scale, also paid to committees including Alice Springs Regional Bushfires, Savannah Regional Bushfires, Tnorala (Gosse Bluff), Animal Welfare, and Work Health & Safety.

The top IMAGE is from the website of the AustralAsia Railway, 824 kilometres from Tarcoola to Alice Springs, opened in 1980, and a 1420 kilometre section from Alice Springs to Darwin that opened in 2004. The AustralAsia Railway Corporation, set up to represent the interests of South Australia and the Northern Territory, is one of the NT Government's 70 statutory bodies about which it is declining to make public significant information.