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Shopper wee-wardin loo of $2 pee-veBy CLAYTON BENNETT

Howwe firstreported thisstory

KATHERINE shoppers maybe able to pee for free after asupermarket spending spree.

A solution may have beenfound for frustrated cus-tomers who were being askedfor $2 every time they usedthe toilets at the Katherineshopping centre.

The fee to answer nature’scall when in the Top Endshopping centre was imple-mented in April this year.

Alderman Steven Rosewants to implement a schemeat the centre where anyone

who spends $10 or more getsto use the toilets if they canpresent a docket.

‘‘It’s well worth consider-ing; if you’re shopping it’sfair enough you should beable to use the toilets,’’ MrRose said.

‘‘Businesses could easilyuse the offer as an incentiveand customers could thenpresent a docket with Xamount of dollars.’’

The centre is being run byFederation Centres, a com-pany based in Melbourne,Victoria. And the company’sgeneral manager of external

affairs Brandon Phillips saidyesterday Federation Centreswould consider all ideas.

‘‘We are open to consider-ing other alternatives,’’ MrPhillips said.

‘‘We haven’t heard thatproposal but we will take thaton board and the council cancontact us.’’

Mr Phillips said that sincethe fee was introduced thecleanliness and safety oftoilets had improved.

‘‘The toilets are clean andoperating properly, whichwasn’t happening pre-viously,’’ Mr Phillips said.

ResidentBruceFrancaissaid thewhole situ-ation was‘‘absolutestupidity’’and causingtension inthe town.

‘‘It’s mak-ing the tour-ists hostile

and the locals as well,’’ MrFrancais said.

‘‘I personally believe it isCentro’s (Federation Cen-

tres) job to get professionalcleaners in.

‘‘It really requires a full-time janitor, not a fee.

‘‘This issue has gonenationwide and made Kather-ine look like a racist town,which it is not.’’

Mr Francais said anotherissue was the toilet openingtimes, with the doors open ona 15-minute rotation.

‘‘So in eight hours it’s onlyopen four,’’ he said.

Katherine mayor Fay Mil-ler said she would not com-ment until she had spokenwith centre management.

Syntheticdrug lagTHE Northern Territory re-mains one of only two juris-dictions in Australia whichhaven’t adopted the poisonsstandard under which syn-thetic drugs would be classi-fied as illicit.

NSW, the other jurisdic-tion, yesterday extended aninterim ban on syntheticdrugs announced after thedeath of a Sydney teenager.

The agreement to extendto 120 days the 60-day banannounced on June 18 afterthe death of 17-year-oldHenry Kwan came as fairtrading ministers met inSydney. NSW will also lookat listing the products sothey would be classified asillicit substances.

NSW Fair Trading Minis-ter Anthony Roberts saidthe agreement would help toensure potentially lethalproducts were kept offshelves for good.

Work colleagues Matthew Archbold and Chris Newcombe found an echidna on the road on their way down to Katherine. They named him ‘Sonic’ andplanned to release him into bushland last night Picture: ELISE DERWIN

On the roadwith pricklycharacterBy DAMIEN McCARTNEY

AN echindna went on a 600km road-trip after a courier came across theprickly obstacle in Palmerston.

Matthew Archbold, 20, said heand a work mate were about tomake the trip to Katherine to de-liver the NT News when they foundthe critter in the middle of the roadin Bellamack.

‘‘I’ve never seen one in the wildbefore,’’ he said. ‘‘I didn’t even knowwe got them up here.’’

Mr Archbold said it took themhalf an hour to pick the creature up.

‘‘They’re spiky as shit,’’ he said.He said they ended up wrapping it

in a jumper, putting him in a milkcrate, and taking him to Katherine.

‘‘There wasn’t much we could dowith — it was after 11pm.’’

Mr Archbold said he couldn’t be-lieve his eyes when he saw exactlywhat it was lying on the road.

‘‘We’ve found birds and stuff, andturtles, but never an echidna.’’

He said their trip to Katherinetook an hour longer than normal,because the creature kept escaping.

‘‘We had to keep pulling over sowe could find him again and puthim back in the crate — he just keptgetting out.’’

Mr Archbold said he would re-lease the prickly character intobushland far away from busy roads.

In May, Palmerston VeterinaryClinic and Wildcare looked after anechidna that had travelled 3000kmas a stowaway in a pipe on board aroad train.

It had travelled from Toowoomba,QLD, before being found by NQXFreight staff.