Auditor-General’s office rules Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’ post misled public over bail laws

The Territory’s top civil servant has ruled that the Chief Minister ‘misled’ the public in a Facebook post over controversial weapon bail laws in the wake of a horror alleged stabbing.

The Auditor-General’s office has accused Chief Minister Natasha Fyles of sharing misleading Facebook posts about the controversial Bail Amendment Bill. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The Chief Minister misled Territorians over controversial bail changes in the wake of alleged stabbing of a young bottleshop worker, according to the Auditor General.

In a report tabled to the parliament, the Auditor-General’s office found Chief Minister Natasha Fyles shared misleading a Facebook post about the Bail Amendment Bill — 10 days after 20-year-old Declan Laverty bled to death at the Airport Tavern bottleshop.

Ms Fyles posted to social media on March 29 that the snap bail laws would create “a new presumption against bail for people charged with a violent offence involving a weapon”.

However, the changes applied to prohibited or controlled weapons like knives, crossbows, knuckle dusters and firearms — but not improvised weapons like rocks, broken bottles and cars.

The Auditor-General’s office has accused Chief Minister Natasha Fyles of sharing misleading Facebook posts about the Bail Amendment Bill on March 29, 2023.

This Facebook post was reported to the Auditor General’s office as a breach of the Public Information Act.

Auditor-General Julie Crisp found that the post “may lead to a reader of the public information interpreting the term ‘weapon’ more broadly than the legislation intends”.

“I am of the opinion that the public information is misleading,” Ms Crisp said.

She recommended that the Facebook post be edited or deleted, “so as not to present misleading information.”

Ms Crisp recommended that “appropriate quality assurance processes are implemented” to prevent more misinformation being spread by the Chief Minister.

Ms Fyles said she valued the role of the auditor general and accepted their concerns and removed the misleading statement.

“We communicate these (Bail and Weapons Act) changes to the public through a variety of channels - with social media needing to be concise messaging,” she said.

“The graphic for this post was removed.”

On Friday, Opposition member Josh Burgoyne condemned the government for misleading the public over the bail laws.

It comes as the NT Auditor-General’s Office warned new Australian Auditing Standards would increase their workload and the cost of audits.

The latest annual report said unless funding was increased there would be a risk that it would result in “insufficient audit coverage”.

The Auditor-General’s office has accused Chief Minister Natasha Fyles of sharing misleading Facebook posts about the controversial Bail Amendment Bill. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“The small number of personnel within the Office presents a risk that insufficient internal human resource capacity and capability will result in inability to deliver audit services, noncompliance with legislation; and or loss of corporate knowledge,” it said.