Senator Lidia Thorpe has filed a report with the NT Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Tuesday, accusing the NT Attorney-General of "undermining" the independence of the court and its powers.
It follows a leaked email, reported by the ABC, from the NT's top judge written to the Attorney-General's Department, asking its acting chief executive not to interfere with the court's media communications.
Senator Thorpe's referral to the ICAC expresses concerns the department is "exerting undue influence of the course of justice" and "undermining the independence of the judiciary".
"The way her department has acted is completely unacceptable," Senator Thorpe told NITV in a statement.
"I’m not saying the Attorney-General is guilty of anything yet — that’s why I’ve referred this to ICAC to investigate," Senator Thorpe said.
In September it was revealed NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby is related to hit-and-run driver Jake Danby, who avoided jail time after an incident that left one Aboriginal man dead and another injured in June 2024.
Calls for a full investigation
The allegations referred by Senator Thorpe reference an email sent by Chief Justice Grant to the Acting CEO of the department, Leonique Swart, as he believed the Supreme Court's media was blocked from sending a media statement to The Australian newspaper.
Both the Attorney-General's Department and the court's media officer said the email was the result of a misunderstanding which has since been resolved.
On Thursday, the Attorney General’s Department released the email correspondence in relation to an article published by The Australian and the subsequent response by Chief Justice Michael Grant.
The original email shows Chief Justice Grant instructing the court's media to call for a correction to an article published by The Australian that drew a connection between the case of hit-and-run offender Jake Danby who avoided jail time, and an Indigenous man who did face jail over a separate hit-and-run incident.
The correspondence then shows the court media liaison sent an email to the Acting CEO of the NT Attorney-General’s department, Leonique Swart, seeking to “run this by” her prior to sending out the call for correction.
Ms Swart’s response provides further advice on how the situation should be handled if the email was going to be attributed to the department.
It then reads: “I have no comments if the Court wishes to respond as per the below – it really is a matter for the court”.
The court media liaison then responds questioning if Ms Swart intends for the correction to be made by the courts or the department, to which Ms Swart responds she does not wish for the department to send the correction.
A subsequent email by NT Chief Justice Michael Grant to Ms Swart labelled the former correspondence as an attempt to “interfere with the Court’s independence and operations”.
“I am extremely disturbed that you have purported to interfere with the Court’s independence and operations in this fashion, and more disturbed that you have done so without making any attempt to discuss the matter with me,” the email from Chief Justice Grant to Ms Swart reads.
Responding to Chief Justice Grant, Ms Swart said she did not intend to “veto” the decision to send a correction.
“I did not intend to veto the court. I was under the apprehension I was being asked to approve a correction being released by the Attorney-General’s Department which at the time I did not approve,” Ms Swart said.
Court previously agreed to share media communications
The email by Chief Justice Grant goes on to reference an agreement made with the former CEO of the Attorney-General’s department in April 2025, where he agreed – at the request of the department’s then CEO Gemma Lake – to copy the Attorney-General and Chief Executive into communications by the Supreme Court to the media.
“This was so that the Attorney-General and the Chief Executive had advance notice of matters which might be the subject of questions from the media in relation to communications from the Supreme Court,” the email by Chief Justice Grant reads.
Senator Thorpe has called for a full investigation by ICAC into any attempts to influence court operations.
"ICAC needs to get to the bottom of this, and the NT Attorney-General can’t just shrug it off. If she denies involvement, she should welcome an ICAC investigation," Senator Thorpe said.
One Aboriginal man dead and another injured
In September, 24-year-old Jake Danby was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order, including five months home detention, after hitting two Aboriginal padestrians with his car in June 2024.
The incident left one man dead and another injured.
The NT Supreme Court heard Mr Danby fled the scene and then labelled the incident a "two for one combo", calling the victims "dogs" and "oxygen thieves" in text messages to friends afterwards.
It was later revealed that the NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby is related to Mr Danby who is her sister's stepson.
At the time Ms Boothby denied her office had ever been involved in the matter and said she had disclosed the conflict to the then CLP opposition leader a the time of the incident.
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