The Northern Territory chief minister says conversations have been held with Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker about his employment future, but she has again refused to confirm if she asked him to resign, as reported in the media last week.
Instead, Natasha Fyles has reasserted her confidence in Deputy Commissioner Michael Murphy, who is acting in the top role after Commissioner Chalker went on pre-approved leave on Friday.
"I have full confidence in the Northern Territory police force and the leadership under Michael Murphy," she told reporters after being asked if Commissioner Chalker still had her support.
Commissioner Chalker took on the top job in November 2019, and his tenure has included significant challenges, including escalating crime, morale issues within the force and a police shooting in Yuendumu several days after he was appointed.
At a press conference outside Parliament House on Wednesday, Ms Fyles confirmed she had met with Commissioner Chalker last Friday.
She said "good faith conversations" had been taking place about his employment contract, which is scheduled to expire later this year.
However, she provided no further details about the talks due to confidentiality requirements.
"I won't be making comments publicly whilst there [are] private, confidential conversations around Commissioner Chalker's [role], heading towards the end of the tenure, towards the end of the year and that contract," she said.
Ms Fyles would also not say whether the commissioner would return to work when his leave was scheduled to end on April 19.
"I'm not going to get into hypotheticals or comment into the future," she said.
"But I can absolutely assure Territorians that there is a strong acting commissioner, someone that has done that role previously, and I will update them if that changes."
Last week, Commissioner Chalker rejected suggestions that he was about to step down, telling ABC Radio Alice Springs there was "absolutely no truth whatsoever" to rumours he would shortly take up a new position.
At the time, he said he intended to remain in the role.
'Who is the police commissioner?'
The CLP Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro today said the chief minister needed to clarify Commissioner Chalker's employment status.
"It is a very simple question to ask the chief minister: who is the police commissioner?" she said.
"And the fact that she can't answer that spells volumes about this situation that Territorians now find themselves in, it has been handled incredibly badly."
Ms Finocchiaro added: "It just beggars belief that we can have a police commissioner on an … undescribed period of leave [and] a chief minister pretending that there's nothing to see here, with her head in the sand."
Ms Fyles rejected the opposition leader's assertion that the lack of clarity reflected poorly on her leadership.
"I think the CLP are playing politics with a very serious issue," Ms Fyles said.
"You know that I'm not afraid to have the difficult conversations, particularly when it's in the best interest of the Northern Territory. And that is exactly what we're doing."
She also rejected Ms Finocchiaro's view that Police Minister Kate Worden should no longer remain in her role.
"I absolutely have faith in not only Kate Worden but all of my ministers," she said.
Earlier today, Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison was asked if she thought Commissioner Chalker had been doing a good job as police commissioner.
She said he was "an incredibly hard-working Territorian".
"[He is] a very hard working, very committed Territorian to the police force and to the job that he does," she said.
Chalker's tenure marked by challenges
Commissioner Chalker officially began his role on November 11, 2019 — two days after Constable Zachary Rolfe fatally shot Kumanjayi Walker during an attempted arrest in the remote community of Yuendumu.
Constable Rolfe was charged with murder four days after the shooting and was ultimately acquitted of all charges after a Supreme Court trial in March 2022, where the jury found he acted in self-defence when he shot Mr Walker after being stabbed in the shoulder with a pair of scissors.
Commissioner Chalker has consistently said he was not involved in the decision to arrest and charge Constable Rolfe, however, the NT Police's handling of case was a source of controversy among many police.
In August 2022, a NT police union survey revealed that 79.7 per cent of members who responded did not have confidence in the commissioner.
Some 1,044 officers took part in the survey out of a total of 1,608 who were eligible.
At the time of the survey, 79.4 per cent of respondents rated morale in the NT police force as low, or very low.
At the NT Police Association (NTPA) conference days later, Commissioner Chalker told the media he had no intention to resign after the survey results.
"Surveys are never going to be popular for police management, I'm not sure there have ever been any that have been popular for us," he said.
The ABC has attempted to contact Commissioner Chalker for comment
