Michael Murphy hires top cop Jason Kennedy to guide discipline, abandons 10-year plan

NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said Project 2030 would be ‘replaced and simplified over a shorter time frame to meet community and workforce expectations’.

Police Commissioner Michael Murphy has flagged an overhaul of the force’s disciplinary procedures following union pressure. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy says the force’s 10-year-plan will remain in place until next year when it will be simplified “to meet community and workforce expectations”.

Writing in the latest edition of the NT Police Association magazine Police News Mr Murphy revealed the force would abandon its Project 2030 reform strategy, after just three years.

But speaking to the NT News on Monday, Mr Murphy said “Project 2030 remains in place as the current strategy”.

“In 2024 it will be replaced and simplified over a shorter time frame to meet community and workforce expectations,” he said.

“The new strategy will be focus on crime reduction and prevention, wellbeing and workforce priorities and innovation with a future focus as a contemporary police force.

“This will align with the restructure across the NTPFES and the police force.

“The workforce and executive will work together to develop the strategy so it is co-designed and developed together.”

NT Police hires top federal cop to guide discipline, abandons 10-year plan

NT Police has recruited a senior federal cop to help overhaul its disciplinary procedures following bitter complaints from the union while abandoning its 10-year strategy just three years in.

Writing in the latest edition of the NT Police Association magazine Police News, Commissioner Michael Murphy revealed plans to remodel the force’s “overused disciplinary system”.

“Aligning with wellbeing, I will continue to drive reform on the overused disciplinary system, how it is applied and better ways of dealing with performance management,” he wrote.

“I have seconded a 29-year serving Commander of the (Australian Federal Police), Mr Jason Kennedy, for 12 months, to assist me with this reform.

“He is highly respected and brings a wealth of policing knowledge to assist with renewing how we better deliver a more contemporary framework for performance.”

Writing in the same edition of the newsletter, NTPA president Nathan Finn said officers were continuing to raise concerns over the force’s “archaic disciplinary process”.

Mr Finn said it was “clear the current system hasn’t been working for many, many years”.

“We want to make sure the process is not the punishment when members are waiting months, sometimes years for an outcome,” he wrote.

“The continued delays we are seeing with promotional appeals and disciplinary appeals and for reviews of terminations is having a lasting effect on the mental health of our members.”

In the commissioner’s article, Mr Murphy also revealed the force would abandon its 10-year Project 2030 reform strategy, after just three years.

“We will also begin to renew our strategic direction and move away from Strategy 2030 (sic) and co-design a new strategy that can be owned by the workforce and executive,” he wrote.

“We will establish focus groups to understand your needs and what we need to best future proof our police force and deliver what means most to the community and our workforce.”

Speaking to the NT News on Monday, Mr Finn said it was not surprising Mr Murphy wanted “to pursue his own strategic direction for the agency, particularly given the separation of the tri-service”.

“Considering the challenges, the NT police force has faced in recent years, and the importance of long-term stability, any change needs to be carefully considered to avoid unnecessary disruption and ensure it is in the best interests of our members and the safety of the community,” he said.

A spokesman for the NT government said “we need to be agile in how we approach the future of the NT Police”.

“We are currently undergoing a review of police resourcing which will give us a good indication of what resources and direction the force will take over the next decade,” he said.

Originally published as Michael Murphy hires top cop Jason Kennedy to guide discipline, abandons 10-year plan