Government-funded services warned by NT Health to not speak

The NT health department has sent a warning to its funded-services about speaking to media amid the national coverage of the crime crisis in Alice Springs.

Government-funded service providers have been warned not to speak out without the health department’s permission, following the crime crisis in Alice Springs.

Sky News has obtained an email sent to non-government organisations last Friday from an employee from the NT Health Department’s Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs Branch.

“Please be reminded of your contractual requirement under the whole of NT government service agreements to notify in writing when it is your intention to involve media in any respect of the funded service delivery,” the email says.

The email goes on to state the “terms and conditions” under which the organisations receive their funding.

Government-funded service providers have been warned against speaking to media without permission, following some public comments made about the situation in Alice Springs. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

It notes those conditions include “ensuring any marketing, communication, promotional and other media activities you undertake in relation to the Funded Activity, in any medium (whether written, verbal, electronic or otherwise), are undertaken in accordance with item three”.

It then details the “allowable media activities for this Funded Activity” listed in “item three”.

“(The department) is to be notified in writing of intentions to involve media in any respect of the funded service delivery,” the email says.

It says the media activity must acknowledge “that the activity is supported by NT Health on brochures and/or government advertisement”.

The email was sent at 1:03pm last Friday after some service providers made public comments about the situation in Alice Springs.

“The email from NT Health Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs Branch is in line with usual service provider contractual obligations, and was not specifically aimed at any particular organisation/s,” an NT Health spokeswoman said.

“These contractual obligations do not prevent service providers from speaking with the media.

“The email is a reminder for service providers to notify NT Health in writing of any potential media involvement in respect of their funded service delivery.”

Opposition health spokesman Bill Yan said the email appeared to be a veiled threat to the organisations to keep quiet.

“It’s really sad to see that the Northern Territory government is trying to gag those NGOs for talking about some of the issues they face on a day-to-day basis,” he said.

“It looks like they are threatening them to remove their funding if they don’t toe the line.”

Matt Cunningham is the Sky News correspondent for the Northern Territory

Originally published as Government-funded services warned by NT Health to not speak