LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Sir – We call on the Chief Minister to substantiate his claims about an unnamed senior police officer.
The Chief Minister has effectively alleged that a senior police officer was involved in the recent leadership struggle within the government.
These comments were made by the Chief Minister during a press conference with the apparent aim of deflecting attention away from the internal power struggle and have been repeated today.
This amounts to an allegation of serious misconduct by a senior police officer.
If Mr Giles believes this to be the case he and the Police Minister should act immediately.
I call on Mr Giles to name the Police Officer, substantiate that claim and provide evidence.
If he is unable to do that he should unequivocally withdraw that comment and apologise to the police officer in private.
It is entirely possible the unnamed senior police officer is a candidate for the position of Commissioner of the NT Police.
By making these comments the Chief Minister has intentionally or unintentionally done irreparable harm to that senior officer and has potentially tainted the process underway to appoint the next NT Police Commissioner.
The Chief Minister must now publicly withdraw from the Cabinet process which finalises the selection of the next Commissioner as he has a clear and publicly stated conflict of interest.
Vince Kelly (pictured)
NT Police Association President