Barkly councillors in Northern Territory dismissed pending new elections

It's a council covering an area larger than most European countries. The Barclay Council, more than 700 kilometres South of Darwin and covering the town of Tennant Creek, has today been sacked. If you do the wrong thing you will face the consequences and the consequences are being placed into official management and you run the risk of being dismissed. The decision follows an investigation into the council which found former CEO Emma Bradbury and mayor Jeffrey McLaughlin had a conflict of interest when handling a key review into how the council functioned. But the biggest consequence was to dismiss the council and call new elections in November and declare that the official manager will continue to manage the affairs of the council until the new council is established. One former councillor who resigned in 2022 over his issues with the council wants to see a new direction. We gotta get people, you know, people working for the council in Tennant Creek office to do the right thing, you know, by everybody, you know, because, you know, they're the elected people and they should be getting, you know, the right staff and the staff should be doing their, you know, doing their job, you know, professionally. The NT Government says further action could be taken as a consequence of the report. Look, I anticipate that there are a number of areas in the report that are going to be referred to relevant authorities for work to be undertaken, but I won't and I don't want to prejudice any of that work. The opposition says it would like to reduce the size of the council so remote areas can take control of local decision making. Quite a number of people are telling me that return to a smaller council in these communities would be better, not only for the people living there, but when it comes to service delivery and jobs. Emma Bradbury said in a statement she wholeheartedly denies any allegation of wrongdoing or breach of the law and contended findings in the report were factually inaccurate. Jeff McLaughlin declined to respond to requests for comment. A council beset by crisis now with a pathway to recovery.