The powerful Northern Land Council's third chief executive in less than three months, Jack Ah Kit has vowed to fix a crisis at the organisation and says Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion should not intervene.
The Commonwealth-funded indigenous statutory authority appears dysfunctional after its executive council sacked acting CEO Rick Fletcher on Friday, following the sacking of CEO Joe Morrison in November after five years.
When the former Labor MLA and NT's first indigenous minister Mr Ah Kit turned up to the NLC's Darwin office on Friday to take on the $300,000-plus a year job, the management team would not let him.
They said they had not been officially notified by the executive council.
The NLC is one of the nation's most powerful indigenous bodies, representing traditional owners on land rights, housing, health and other issues but relations between the board and key staff have broken down.
There is also hostility between the nine-member executive council and many of the 83 regional councillors, such as Daly River's John Daly and Darwin West's James Sing, calling for Senator Scullion to order a full council meeting to resolve governance concerns.
The 83 councillors have the power to overthrow the board.
Mr Ah Kit said there was "no reason for him (Senator Scullion) to intervene" with the next full council meeting due in May.
Senator Scullion released a statement saying he had "acted to investigate a number of serious allegations that have been made regarding the governance of the Northern Land Council", but would not comment further.
One concern around the alleged misuse of funds is about why the NLC has been reportedly paying above market rates of about $1 million a year to lease its offices to building owners the Aboriginal Investment Group, whose board are all NLC executive council members.
Mr Ah Kit said he believed the organisation was "squeaky clean" in how it spent money, it was audited regularly and a separate panel set up by Prime Minister Scott Morrison was currently auditing the NLC.
However he said it has lost its way and some of the 83 council members were not representing the people.
"The NLC provides a lot of leadership, it has done for many years and the credibility and integrity of this organisation is paramount and has to be maintained," Mr Ah Kit told reporters.
"This is the worst I've ever seen it ... people are frustrated and saying they don't like the land council."
The NLC had been silent when it should have been on the front foot on treaty and constitutional issues, he said.
