Sunday Territorian 1 Mar 2015
Sunday Territorian; NewspaperNT
2015-03-01
This publication contains may contain links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.
English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin.; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin.
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
Darwin
application/pdf
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
Nationwide News Pty. Limited
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/256132
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/522387
SUNDAY MARCH 1 2015 NEWS 03 V1 - NTNE01Z01MA OVERHEARD IN THE NT NEWS NEWSROOM: You can all come and look, but you have to promise not to put a complaint in to HR. Rock and a far place QANTAS seems to be a bit disorientated in this tweet. Alongside this picture of a couple at Uluru, it said: Treat your tastebuds in Darwin, world famous for fabulous food and outdoor markets. How fast can this be over TWO NT News journalists ended up in an awkward situation when they each attended the Hot 100 Singles Speed Dating event without knowing the other would be there and ended up having to speed date each other as part of the process. Its understood the colleagues relationship didnt develop into a romance. ABC cops more bagging CUTS to the ABC have thankfully not impacted the grand ol lady of broadcastings disaster coverage spending. The special A-Team headed up by the villainous-eyebrowed James Oaten were seen loading the plane to Nhulunbuy with roughly 45kg of special sandbags to assist in their cover age of Cyclone Lam-damaged communities. Not to help with flooding risks, but rather to hold down their precious eyebrow lighting stands. Perhaps the boys, who also had their ration packs full to the brim, thought all the sand in the coastal communities was blown away ... or that Darwin sand was simply better. But maybe not today SEEN on a Darwin bumper sticker: I live with fear. And sometimes she lets me go fishing. Nuggets far from golden AN NT News staffer took the interesting gourmet route of buying some McDonalds chicken nuggets. The problem was there was a bite mark in one of them. Probably better to let Maccas staff eat them than take the risk of eating them yourselves. Yowies back in vogue WHILE sniffing around Cullen Bay for news Bushranger received a text from a concerned friend when told of our location: keep an eye out for yowies. Reply: Are they out and about? Answer: Always. In 2009 the NT News front page had Top End yowie researcher Andrew McGinn saying one could have killed a local dog. In August 1997, mango farmer Katrina Tucker reported being just metres away from what she described as a hairy humanoid creature on her Acacia Hills property. It is not too much of a stretch to say the Territory yowie or yowies are back. They never went away, said one observer of the yowie industry. Bit of a hairy one A CO-AUTHOR of books on both yowies and poltergeists answered thus when asked which one people tended to believe in more. I think more people are inclined to accept poltergeist activities, which is stranger, maybe because there are so many movies about poltergeists, he said. But the big hairy men, that is a big ask to expect people to believe there are dirty great hairy men out there. I have spoken to well over 120 who say they have seen a yowie. For some years I have thought the big hairy ape man phenomenon worldwide is genuine and most people are telling the truth, but I am inclined to believe it is some sort of supernatural phenomenon, not a zoological one. Bring it on Jono OK. The time is now. We are throwing down the challenge to our friends at Nine News Darwin to bring back the Sweaty Thong challenge. The Sweaty Thong was an annual, slightly inebriated grudge match between the NT News and Nine. We are worried that Jono Uptin and friends are a little scared of being beaten. Passion slightly got in the way during the competitions final years and it all ended badly. But we have taken our jocks off and thrown them on the ground. That is the symbol of the challenge being put. Forced into this wreck Jackie Imms' nine-year-old daughter Jordan Grace outside the dilapidated caravan that she and her family have been forced to move into Picture: ELISE DERWIN THE parents of a nine-yearold girl with a rare genetic disorder have been forced to move their family into a rundown caravan after being left financially devastated when their daughter was refused access to a special-needs bus. The decision meant mum Jackie Imms had to quit her job to stay home with Jordan Grace, who has Williams syndrome, meaning she has to be tube fed and will eventually require heart surgery. The illness, affecting one in 10,000 children is character ised by developmental delays and learning disabilities. Six months ago, Jordans parents moved her from the Humpty Doo primary school to the non-Government Saint Francis of Assisi because of health and behavioural issues meaning she needed to receive constant supervision. But following the relocation, the school principal advised the family that Jordan was unable to access the NT Governments special-needs bus to deliver her to and from school as it was only for public school students. Mrs Imms has been unable to transport Jordan to school and had no option but to leave her job and stay home to care for her daughter. It wasnt until a frustrated Ms Imms threatened to go to the media yesterday that the Departments of Transport and Education backflipped and a representative advised Ms Imms that an exemption would be granted to allow for the bus to pick up Jordan. Ms Imms said while she is grateful to have had the situation resolved, she is concerned it took seven months. I honestly just do not want any other parents to go through what we have just been through, and I want people to feel that when they get told no then they should fight the decision. We have been left feeling extremely frustrated as to why this took so long to eventuate and why she was denied transport since July. I feel like Jordan was discriminated against. It was stressful and unacceptable, and it really isnt over for us because this has placed us under considerable emotional and financial hardship. She said the family was now packing up its home, preparing to move into the caravan. Our family is left with no other option but to move out of our home, where we have lived for the past three years, and into a caravan on a friends property so we can get back on feet again, Ms Imms said. Special-needs bus snafu resolvedBy MARIA BILLIAS Grog beats need more funding THE Peoples Alcohol Action Coalition said figures show a huge drop in assaults in some towns over the past year but more funding was needed for the temporary beat initiative or the banned drinker register should be reinstated. PAAC spokesman Dr John Boffa said the government was right in its assessment of the effectiveness of reducing alcohol consumption by police Temporary Beat Locations outside bottle shops but not enough money was put into the practice. In the past few weeks we have seen a reduced and sporadic TBL presence in Alice Springs, he said. The effects are immediate and obvious. Theres been an increase in drunken behaviour and emergency services have been stretched to the limit. Dr Boff said, according to government figures, in 2013 there was a 6 per cent reduction in pure alcohol content in take away sales in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine and the number of assaults also fell. And the December 2014 figures showed assaults in Alice had dropped by 25 per cent. In Tennant Creek there were 57 per cent fewer assaults, he said. Compare Darwin, with an increase in assaults of more than 8 per cent, where there were no TBLs in 2013, and where just a couple of outlets currently have them. Now the TBLs are inconsistent in Alice and we risk a rise in alcohol-related harm. If the Government cannot fund its police service at a level that enables coverage of all takeaway outlets during all opening hours, the electronic ID system that the CLP abandoned should be reinstated. By DAVID WOOD LIVE MUSIC @ 3PM LOVEBOAT @ HOWARD SPRINGS TAVERN!