Darwin Lawyers | Expert Solicitors

On the 6th June 2019 the NT Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne delivered her independent monitoring reports on the two youth detention centres in the Territory. The reports found numerous shortcomings in the facilities and the procedures followed when dealing with youths who were at risk, separated or in lock-down. They also found the provision of…

The law varies from state to state as to whether a person can consent to being assaulted. While some jurisdictions have definitions of assault that explicitly require lack of consent for the offence to be made out, others do not. The Northern Territory definition of assault requires lack of consent on the part of the…

The Northern Territory has by far the highest rate of homelessness of any Australian jurisdiction. According to the 2016 census, 13,717 people in the NT are currently homeless. While the national rate of homelessness is 50 homeless people in every 10,000 Australians, in the NT the figure is 730 per 10,000 Territorians. The reasons for…

Northern Territory laws regulating the treatment of animals were tightened in 2018 with the passage of the Animal Protection Act. The Act replaces the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and imposes harsher penalties for animal cruelty. The Act has been welcomed by the animal welfare sector as strengthening laws against animal cruelty but it has also…