Ex-Chief Minister Paul Henderson defends decision to reject bureaucrat advice on Stella Maris deal

FORMER chief minister Paul Henderson said the Territory would be “tied up in knots” if public servants called all the shots, as he fronted the Stella Maris inquiry.

Former Chief Minister Paul Henderson

FORMER chief minister Paul Henderson said the Territory would be “tied up in knots” if public servants called all the shots, as he defended his government’s decision to ignore the advice of bureaucrats on Stella Maris.

Mr Henderson yesterday gave evidence at an inquiry into the leasing of the Darwin CBD site to Unions NT.

“Just because the agency had a view ... that doesn’t say that there was any obligation to take that advice,” Mr Henderson told the hearing.

“Governments are elected to govern but if government agencies are going to run the place we’d be tied up in knots forever.”

The inquiry was established last year after an NT News investigation revealed the site was offered to Unions NT the day before the caretaker period began in 2012.

A constant theme of the hearings has been the apparent failure to follow internal Department of Lands and Planning processes related to community land grants.

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There is little dispute Cabinet had the power to offer the lease. But the inquiry has heard that steps were skipped along the way – there is no record that Unions NT ever submitted an application form or paid an application fee.

Mr Henderson said he would be “disappointed that the proper process wasn’t followed”. “I would have expected a formal process to be undertaken ... and it’s news to me that it wasn’t,” he said.

“I believe fundamentally it was the right decision, but I would have expected due process through the department. But I had no clear line of sight to that.”

The inquiry was told Stella Maris was “a very small issue” that was not on the chief minister’s radar in 2012 with an election approaching.

Mr Henderson said he believed the decision should have been announced publicly at the time.

“I would have framed that as a great day for old Darwin,” he said. “I would have thought that was an extremely good story to tell.”