Tighter guidelines around taxpayer-funded travel by Northern Territory MPs and their staff during election campaigns have been recommended, following an ICAC investigation.
NT Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Michael Riches report on the investigation, tabled in the NT parliament on Wednesday night, centred on allegations of improper conduct in the lead-up to the 2020 NT election.
Then Chief Minister Michael Gunner and other public officers were alleged to have misused public resources by undertaking taxpayer-funded travel for political purposes during the caretaker period.
"I have not made any findings in respect of Mr Gunner. That is, I have not made a finding that he did, or did not, engage in improper conduct," Mr Riches wrote.
He stated that what constituted a political purpose, as opposed to a public purpose, was not well defined and there remained "intolerable ambiguity".
"That ambiguity is one of the reasons I have decided not to proceed to record findings in this report," the report said.
Mr Riches' report noted that Mr Gunner attended remote NT communities on three trips in mid-August 2020 via charter plane, for the stated purpose of community engagement at remote polling booths. The trips cost taxpayers $14,000.
"It was said that engagement within remote communities is difficult and rarely are there events during which the community will come together," the report said.
During the visits, Mr Gunner recorded Territory Labor promotional videos, visited the polling booths and spoke to community members about COVID-19.
Mr Riches recommended amendments to ministerial staff guidelines relating to political activities.
He also recommended that Members of the Legislative Assembly agree that neither they or their staff use public resources on a political activity and agree to keep a record of any travel during the caretaker period if it is funded with public money.
Among the recommendations were the establishment of a process to make those records available to the public, ensure staff only undertake political activities outside business hours and in the 60 days before an election MLAs agree that their staff complete a timesheet identifying time spent on public duties and time spent on political activities.
Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the recommendations were "largely in line" with updated compulsory ministerial staff guidelines distributed in March.
"The line in the sand has been drawn for me. I'm making sure that the government that I lead … are very clear around what ministerial travel should and shouldn't be," she told reporters.
Mr Riches has also investigated a separate allegation that staff from the Office of the Chief Minister had engaged in political work during office hours to support the Labor election campaign.
Mr Riches said he would deliver a report on that allegation to the chief minister by June 30.
Ms Lawler would not commit to releasing that report.
