Oliver Chaseling
Oliver Chaseling is a journalist in the ABC's Darwin bureau in the Northern Territory. He has previously worked in community services and public health research in various communities in Arnhem Land, NT. He can be reached at [email protected], or on instagram @chassling.
Latest by Oliver Chaseling
Aboriginal legal service director defends organisation amid financial audits, instability
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency's deputy chair Colleen Rosas has defended its ability to deliver services amid multiple audits, executive resignations, the domestic violence history of its chair, and an impending federal court decision.
Federal MP to take legal action against Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe over COVID fund allegations
By Matt Garrick and Oliver Chaseling
Federal MP Marion Scrymgour says she has engaged a lawyer after Lidia Thorpe suggested she had taken advantage of COVID-19 stimulus money while she was chief executive of the Northern Land Council.
Updated
Federal, NT governments seeking to recoup $2.7m in unspent funds from major legal aid service
The NT and federal governments are seeking to retrieve almost $2.7 million in funding from NAAJA. It comes amid revelations NAAJA chairperson Hugh Woodbury allegedly violently assaulted his pregnant partner in 2020.
'Disgraceful': Outrage after footage emerges of fishing gill-nets allegedly used in banned waters
By Matt Garrick and Oliver Chaseling
Commercial barramundi fishing vessels are being accused of killing sea life in huge nets off Arnhem Land, in the remote Northern Territory, in waters where commercial fishing is banned.
Fifty-six homelands inspected for urgent repairs in 2022 must wait another six months
The federal and NT governments are still negotiating whether new houses can be built on homelands under the terms of a "landmark" housing deal. But it comes as some homelands have already been waiting up to six years for repairs.
Updated
ICAC says investigations 'thwarted' by NT government's refusal to hand over cabinet documents
The NT's anti-corruption watchdog says a number of its investigations have been "thwarted" by the withholding of internal territory government documents and budget cuts, as it admits some of its investigations are proceeding "at a glacial pace".
Federal and NT governments announce $1b package to fully fund NT public schools
By Thomas Morgan and Oliver Chaseling
The federal government will invest an additional $737 million from 2025 to 2029 in Northern Territory public schools under the agreement, which it says will go to addressing serious educational disadvantage in the territory.
Updated
Pilot sentenced for destroying evidence after chopper crash that killed Netflix star
By Oliver Chaseling and Alicia Perera
Michael Burbidge has been fined $15,000 for destroying Chris "Willow" Wilson's phone after the Netflix star's death in a helicopter crash in February 2022, as details of the crash aftermath are made public for the first time.
Matt Wright and company Helibrook to contest NT WorkSafe charges over chopper crash
Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright has indicated he will fight charges laid by the Northern Territory's work safety watchdog over a fatal helicopter crash that killed his co-star Chris "Willow" Wilson.
Updated
Decades after the bombing of Darwin, family secrets continue to be unearthed
It's been 82 years since Japanese fighters launched a deadly air raid on the Northern Territory in World War II. Yvonne's Odegaard's father was among the survivors.
Updated
Cyclone watch issued for Gulf of Carpentaria as communities warned to prepare
Communities from Port Roper to Burketown are being warned to prepare for severe weather as the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts a 40 per cent chance of a tropical low developing into a cyclone over the region.
Commercial fishing boats to continue use of gillnets in popular NT rivers
Commercial fishing boats can continue allowed to deploy thousands of metres of fishing nets in the Roper and Daly river systems under a short-term plan.
Updated
Reduced liquor trading hours in Darwin to be scrapped, with trial to end next week
A trial pushing back the weekday opening hours of Darwin bottle shops will end after six weeks, as the NT police minister says the change has had no "massive impact" and led to instances of alcohol abuse in licensed venues.
Darwin prisoner suffered heart attack effects for two days before hospitalisation, inquest hears
The NT coroner says the prisoner was "let down on a number of different occasions by a number of different practitioners" in the lead-up to his death.
Updated
Indigenous land rights champion Dr Bush-Blanasi farewelled in emotional state funeral in Darwin
By Alicia Perera and Oliver Chaseling
The Yolŋu and Mayili man died last month at the age of 61, after a life spent advancing the rights and self-determination of Indigenous Australians.
Updated
Former administrator and solicitor-general remembered as a 'true NT legend' at state funeral
On what would have been his 77th birthday, hundreds of family and friends hear glowing tributes to Tom Pauling AO KC, at a state funeral in Darwin.
Man accused of Darwin bottle shop murder expected to argue self-defence, court hears
Lawyers for Keith Kerinauia, the man accused of murdering 20-year-old Declan Laverty in Darwin earlier this year, are expected to argue their client acted in self-defence before allegedly stabbing the bottle shop worker.
Santos lawyers accuse traditional owners of altering dreaming stories to block gas pipeline
A group of Tiwi Islands elders have faced off against Santos in the Federal Court, over the gas giant's plans to build a pipeline past the islands for its $5.6 billion Barossa project.
Traditional owners seek at least $225m in compensation over NT mine expansion
A group of traditional owners are seeking "no less than" $225 million in compensation over the effects of the Northern Territory's largest zinc and lead mine.
Armed militia, stolen yacht and drug business part of Sydney entrepreneur's plan to flee Australia, court hears
Andrew Spira pleads guilty to fraud and drugs charges in Darwin as a court hears details of his elaborate plans to "get a drug business up and running" and start an armed militia after he tried to flee Australia with a fake passport.
Public housing tenants challenge NT government's remote rent policy in Supreme Court
The Northern Territory government defends a change in remote rent policy that public housing tenants from Gunbalanya say is an "unreasonable" and "unfair" system.
People over 65 die of dementia more than anything else. Should it be included in NT euthanasia laws?
Nowhere else in Australia can a person living with dementia access Voluntary Assisted Dying. The territory was the first to legalise VAD in 1995, could it again break new ground?
Updated
Santos ordered to pause construction on $5.6b Barossa project, hours before works due to start
By Samantha Dick and Oliver Chaseling
An emergency injunction granted to a Tiwi Islands traditional owner by the Federal Court has halted construction of the project's underwater gas export pipeline for several weeks.
Jermaine Austral charged with aggravated burglary, firearms offences
The 27-year-old Darwin man, who was arrested on Friday following a police search in bushland, has been charged with numerous offences.
Tiwi Land Council dismisses Santos report into cultural heritage following pipeline approval
A major assessment of cultural heritage values by Santos, which is planning to build an underwater pipeline through Tiwi sea country, has ignored the concerns of traditional owners, the land council says.