EDITORIAL: The Opposition CLP has failed to do its job this week in Parliament, which won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been observing NT politics for any amount of time, but their latest failure raises troubling questions about our democratic institutions and who is actually protecting and defending them.

The CLP had a responsibility to prosecute Chief Minister Natasha Fyles in Parliament this week for her breach of the ministerial code of conduct by not divesting her shares in gas giant Woodside as soon as she became aware of them last year.

The Chief Minister also violated the Legislative Assembly Disclosures of Interests Act by failing to disclose her shares in BHP on her Register of Members Interests forms for at least the years 2017 to 2020. She also failed to disclose at any time that her husband is a senior employee of Careflight, the company that was awarded tens of millions of taxpayer dollars through lucrative contracts she would have approved as Health Minister.

All of these issues amount to serious breaches of the public’s trust and far better politicians than Fyles have lost their careers over much less. Hell, even here, the last minister to breach the code of conduct resigned for the good of his own party in 2016, which was a scandal-plagued disaster.

But the Opposition chose not to utter a single word about Fyles’ massive scandal the entire week of parliamentary sittings.

So, why didn’t the CLP try to censure her, or refer to the Privileges Committee, or even call her out on the floor of Parliament once for her multiple breaches of the public’s trust?

There are probably two main reasons and neither one of them is acceptable and both point to the same Labor malady now seemingly afflicting the Opposition: self-interest.

Either the CLP did not raise the Chief Minister’s multiple breaches of the ministerial code of conduct and the Disclosures of Interests Act because they did not want to be criticised for their own shares in oil and gas companies or they are still being blackmailed by the Chief Minister and afraid to take any action or refer to her any agency for fear of her spilling whatever secret they’re afraid she has on them.

We’ll get to back that blackmail stuff in a moment. The other likely aspect of this is that they, like her own caucus colleagues, want her to stay in the role she no longer has any credibility to hold because it serves their political interests, but does nothing to promote a healthy democracy in the NT. It’ll be easier to defeat a wounded and struggling politician like Fyles at the next election, they believe.

On the CLP’s shares front, the Opposition needs to get rid of them and get rid of them now. Last week they told media they would divest their shares if elected to government.

No shit – it is required of all ministers to divest their shares in companies that present a conflict of interest with their duties as ministers. This is exactly what Fyles did not do that has ruined her political career.

It is absurd that they would even try to suggest following the ministerial code of conduct if elected would be good enough. Is that how far we’ve come that they think the public will salute them for doing the bare minimum?

To their credit, and after the NT Independent sent a series of questions on Friday, the party now says Lia Finocchiaro’s husband Sam Burke’s shares in Santos have been divested. Same with Steve Edgington’s shares in Origin and Santos and Arafura Rare Earths.

A good first step, but why not do it last week or last year to show the public they were ready to lead?

This is a radical concept in our Parliament these days, that elected representatives should put their own personal interests below those of the public’s and the Territory overall. Why did they get into this in the first place if it wasn’t to improve the Territory and Territorians’ lives?

Now, as for the blackmail business.

During the October parliamentary sittings, Ms Fyles grew enraged when repeatedly questioned about the Auditor General finding she lied to the public in a series of taxpayer-funded social media posts, telling the CLP to use “caution” when “getting in the gutter” about exposing who lied to the public. She made some veiled references to breaches of the Public Information Act, that hinted a bit too strongly about something more sinister that she did not need to verbalise to achieve the desired effect.

The CLP stopped interjecting, put their heads down and didn’t ask another question about the Chief Minister’s severe lack of integrity.

The remarkable part at the time was that Fyles had spelled out that she was aware of questionable conduct on the part of the CLP, but openly said she chose not to report it (which may also violate mandatory reporting requirements) and boldly confessed as the leader of the NT Government that she preferred to use that information to blackmail the Opposition to prevent them from doing their jobs.

The confession was staggering in its own right and raised so many misconduct questions on both sides, we’re not even sure this place should be allowed to function anymore.

But if Lia and the CLP think playing nice with Fyles so she won’t spill their secrets is going to work, they are more naive and incapable of leading than we ever imagined.

Here’s a tip, Labor will expose the secret when it suits them politically regardless of how nice Lia and her team have played. That’s politics and anyone who takes anything Fyles says at face value these days deserves whatever happens to them.

We’ll also let Lia know now that as soon as we have enough – and we will – we’ll publish it so everyone knows.

The CLP in Opposition has been horrendous. They are not to be seen as an alternate government, they’re an arrogant old government looking to get in again to grease their own palms like the good old days, that has failed to adequately explain to Territorians how it would do anything differently, including how to fix the crime crisis properly, grow the economy and provide integrity to government.

We’ve all heard enough about them having “the plan”, but not enough details to get anyone interested. Eight months out from the election, they’re just sitting back and hoping to take advantage of the old NT paradigm of one party government getting tired and useless only to be replaced with another useless group of people who take us to even new depths of unprofessionalism and bumbling incompetence.

Fyles is a terrible Chief Minister, but the Opposition has been equally as bad.

Makes you think the best option is leaving the established political brands and trying something different. Maybe like the old days of voting for the person who will best represent you and your electorate instead of the party.

That could only lead us to a better Territory than we currently have.