Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro confirms ICAC report damning Michael Murphy will be tabled

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has confirmed the damning and anonymised Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC) Operation Apollo report will be tabled in Northern Territory parliament today.

Northern Territory Parliament. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has confirmed the damning and anonymised Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC) Operation Apollo report will be tabled in Northern Territory parliament today.

Ms Finocchiaro said she wanted to clear the air about the report however three paragraphs have been redacted at the request of the ICAC inspector.

“There has been a lot of speculation and coverage over this issue,” she said.

“Today in parliament I will be tabling the Operation Apollo report.

“I have received confirmation from the ICAC inspector that I can do that.

“There will be three paragraphs redacted from the Operation Apollo report because the ICAC inspector has determined that they do nor meet the public interest test.

“Along with that I will be providing a statement. What we know is that Operation Apollo made findings against the Police Commissioner around failure to manage conflicts of interest in recruitment processes.

“He has lost the trust and confidence of the Northern Territory Government.

“What we are now going through is a process of termination and that process needs to take its course.”

Mr Murphy in a written statement on March 6 admitted he was the senior executive public officer in the report released a week earlier, who had engaged in “improper conduct” in a recruitment process, in which a close friend of his was hired into a senior position in the department.

Mr Murphy’s fate as NT Police Commissioner was sealed when the entire executive board of the Northern Territory Police Association called for his resignation.