The ongoing war of words between the Opposition, the union representing police, the Chief Minister and the Police Commissioner over the Constable Zach Rolfe murder charge continued Wednesday with the commissioner dismissing accusations of his involvement in the decision to charge as “a lie”.

Jamie Chalker, who is facing a public petition with nearly 10,000 names calling for his resignation for a number of matters, called a press conference at the same time parliamentary Question Time was underway to address the media for the first time since his disastrous speech hours after Constable Rolfe was acquitted of murder by a Supreme Court jury on March 11.

Mr Chalker said the thousands of people calling for his resignation, including his own officers, were basing their opinion on “a lie” and said he was at “arm’s length” of the investigation and decision to lay the charge.

“Unfortunately, a lot of those opinions is based on a lie. Is that fair?” he said. “The trouble is it’s all based on a lie and you can see how impactful and hurtful that lie has been.

“Again, please allow the relevant processes to go through so you can see the truth.”

Mr Chalker added he believes he has retained the confidence of members.

“I believe I’ve got the confidence of a lot of police officers, as I say I believe there’s a lot of police officers who are operating under mistruths,” he said. “And that’s disappointing, and it’s very debilitating.”

He added he had recently been to Alice Springs, where sources told the NT Independent he asked senior officers in a meeting if they supported him.

“They know they have my support,” he said.

“They know I’m Territory born and bred, they know I care deeply about them. They know I care deeply about making sure that they can all operate in an environment where it’s safe, where they’re free of any indiscretions from others, and that they feel that there’s a safe environment to come to work each and every day.”

But when asked about the other matters raised in the petition, including overseeing the largest amount of resignations in the history of the NT Police force, Mr Chalker said those had to do with COVID-19 and the leave he cancelled.

“I take responsibility for the fact we’ve been dealing with a pandemic and many of our people couldn’t go and visit their families,” he said.

He said he hadn’t been told that anyone had resigned because of the Rolfe affair but said it was possible with “all the mischief that was circulated”.

Mr Chalker maintained that he “remained at arm’s length” during the investigation process and that the decision to charge was made by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and senior police investigators.

He denied meeting with the DPP or the Chief Minister to discuss charging Constable Rolfe.

“I was as shocked as anybody related to the fact of receiving that advice and of course had to immediately move into a mode of ensuring the safety of people involved,” Mr Chalker said.

“Someone created that lie and [Constable Rolfe] has believed that to be true, that is greatly concerning to me. That is deeply sad to me, it’s deeply sad for the police force and should be deeply sad to the community of the Northern Territory.”

Mr Chalker would not comment on the disciplinary notices issued to Constable Rolfe by the brass after the not guilty verdict was handed down.

Meanwhile, Question Time in Parliament was dominated for the second straight day with questions from the Opposition to Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Police Minister Nicole Manison about their discussions around the charges against Constable Rolfe.

Both denied any involvement.

NTPA president Paul McCue did not respond to questions, including around a possible no confidence vote being arranged by police members.