Chief Minister department helping NT police executive amid media boss’ sudden departure
A government marketing director who provides advice on the ‘Territory Masterbrand’ has been helping the police executive, after the police media director’s sudden departure from the role.
Northern Territory
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The acting police boss says a marketing director from the Chief Minister’s department has been helping his office but ruled out any government influence on police media operations.
It comes as the media director of police, fire and emergency services Margaret McKeown unexpectedly left her role.
The public servant, Sita Bacher, has been helping the Office of the Commissioner since at least June 23.
Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said she was “supporting the transition of the social order response work to NT Police through to the Territory Safety Coordination Centre”.
However he said Ms Bacher nor the Department of the Chief Minster and Cabinet had “no influence” on how or what information police released to the public.
“The NT PFES media unit remains in Darwin City and provides regular updates on crime activity and public information – this team remain responsible for media releases,” he said.
Mr Murphy also said Ms McKeown’s employment ended last week.
“Matters between employer and employee are confidential, the recruitment for the position is being considered,” he said.
Meanwhile, weekly press conferences which allowed journalists to ask questions directly to the police top brass stopped after June 27 without explanation, however Mr Murphy said they would recommence next week.
Ms Bacher describes her role on LinkedIn as leader of a team which provides “strategic marketing advice and services for NT government agencies, whole of government campaigns, Major Projects and The Territory Masterbrand”.
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles on Tuesday, when asked if her department’s staff had been involved in the police media’s operations, said “that would be an operational question for police but not to my knowledge”.
“But it’s not uncommon to see people move around within government agencies and different positions,” she said.
Ms Fyles denied there was political interference in the police media unit, saying most public servants were “not political at all”.
“There is no political interference, from my team, into government departments,” she said.
When asked if the government had been involved in any changes to the police media unit’s operations, Police Minister Kate Worden said “absolutely not”.
“Police media have made decisions for themselves around what they would like to see strategically and they’re doing some strategic planning,” she said.
“(Regarding) operational decisions around staffing, I won’t be commenting.”
A Territory government spokesman said Ms Bacher was “assisting with the development of a community-focused safety campaign”.
“Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet does not oversee media releases issued by PFES and does not have any involvement with the police media unit,” he said.
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