CLP president Jamie De Brenni has resigned and been replaced by Fiona Darcy the party has said, but the change comes at a tumultuous time, with the future of the party under threat, and amid internal allegations that inappropriate behaviour against women over the last couple of years was not being investigated.
The party is currently being audited by the Australian Election Commission to determine if it has enough members to remain as an official federal party following the bitter resignation of its only federal member Senator Sam McMahon.
Mr De Brenni’s resignation was offered at the party’s central council meeting in Palmerston on Saturday morning.
In a statement released by the party, Mr De Brenni said he felt it was logistically untenable for him to be president outside of Darwin.
“I am taking this step as I believe it is in the best interest of the party with a federal election pending,” he said. “I would like to thank you all for your support.”
In another statement issued shortly after, the party said Ms Darcy had been elected president.
“I would like to thank Jamie for his hard work over many years as both party president and member of management committee, he has always put the CLP first,” she said.
“I have been a member of the Country Liberal Party for 30 years and over those decades, haveheld many senior roles.
“My goals as party president is to ensure that we are supporting our federal candidates so that the Territory has the best representation in Canberra as part of a Morrison-led Coalition Government, and then looking to ensure we are ready to govern in 2024.”
Complaints of threatening behaviour towards women
She said while she has friends in the CLP, and Mr De Brenni was a “great guy”, she could not continue to feel unsafe at work.
“It’s a personal issue for me. I can’t put up any longer with not feeling safe and secure in the workplace,” she said on Mix 104.9 earlier this month.
She did not elaborate on what or who made her feel unsafe.
However Mr De Brenni told radio her complaints centered around “issues that Sam had with people inside the party”. He added the complaints are still being dealt with.
Members the NT Independent spoke with said they had witnessed inappropriate behaviour by male members toward female members over the last couple of years, including an incident that involved a male member spitting on a female member, as well as threats and aggressive behaviour that exceeded the threshold for heated political debate.
All of the issues were raised with Mr De Brenni and the management committee, that includes Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro and deputy leader Gerard Maley, but the members say some of the matters are more than a year old and had not been adequately addressed – or in most cases, not addressed at all.
Ms Finocchiaro recently said on radio the CLP does not have a problem with females being bullied, saying “there is no culture in the CLP that is causing any issue particularly for women”.
Mr De Brenni did not directly respond to questions sent by the NT Independent at the time, including if he could point to any complaints made to the management committee that have been resolved.
“Matters raised in management are confidential, as are matters raised in any other organisation by its committee or board,” Mr De Brenni said in a statement.
“We promote and support women at all levels of our organisation.”
The existential threat to the party
The AEC audit was triggered because the CLP no longer has any sitting members in federal Parliament, and will end in the party being deregistered if it cannot prove it has 1500 members.
Ms McMahon lost preselection for the CLP’s senate ticket last June to Jacinta Price and resigned from the party in late January.
Mr De Brenni previously said the party would be fielding candidates at the upcoming federal election as the CLP, because the party is affiliated with the federal Nationals Party which would help them meet the necessary member numbers.
However, the AEC said that would not prevent the party from losing registered party status.
“If the party in question was to be deemed a non-parliamentary party then any affiliation would not factor into fulfilling the requirement for the number of members – they’d need their own members in this case,” an AEC spokesman told the NT Independent earlier this month.
“(However) a review into a party’s registration would include assessing any affiliation and the impact of such a connection.”
University of Queensland electoral law expert Graeme Orr said the CLP still had options to remain a registered political party, but would have to move quickly to change its constitution before the federal election is called or risk losing party status and running its Senate and House candidates as independents on the ballot paper.
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