Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has lashed out at Labor Member for Blain Mark Turner, claiming the Labor caucus does not “trust him” – more than a year after she personally and officially cleared him of misleading Parliament.

Ms Fyles was asked about Mr Turner’s status with the party on ABC Radio yesterday morning, where she confirmed he was no longer a member of the parliamentary caucus, but could not, or would not, explain why.

“So, the Labor caucus is a group of parliamentarians that trust each other,” she said.

“We have said in the past, outlined very clearly that he is not a member of that Labor caucus.”

Mr Turner was caught up in the so-called Labor cocaine sex scandal in 2021 that centred around an alleged 2020 election night drug and booze-fuelled sex romp reportedly involving Labor staffer Kent Rowe, Mr Turner and a local sex worker.

Mr Turner revealed himself to be the MLA at the centre of the scandal, after he disclosed in a speech to Parliament in February 2021 that he was the MLA identified by a local sex worker on radio as carrying out an extra-marital affair with her, but denied any allegations of improper conduct and involvement in the election night tryst.

He said at the time that the relationship was “not appropriate” because it became “too intimate” and that it was “not illegal” and “consensual” and “respectful”.

Mr Turner was reportedly kicked out of the Labor caucus in the days that followed, after media reports revealed explicit text messages that showed he had left key details of the relationship and the sex worker’s alleged drug use out of his speech to Parliament. There was no suggestion Mr Turner took any illicit substances.

Then-chief minister Michael Gunner said at the time that Mr Turner had lost the trust of the Labor caucus by making “material changes to the statement that took out some very important denials” but the details Mr Gunner was referring to have never been explained.

Mr Turner was later referred to the ICAC for “improper conduct” and to Parliament’s Privileges Committee for investigation, with both bodies dropping their probes citing a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.

Ms Fyles, as the then-chair of the Privileges Committee, signed a report in October 2021 clearing Mr Turner of misleading Parliament and said the committee “decided to discontinue its inquiry” because the “allegations do not warrant further consideration”.

Asked again on Tuesday morning why Mr Turner was no longer a member of the Labor caucus after the Privileges Committee and the ICAC both dropped their investigations into his conduct, Ms Fyles refused to answer, repeatedly saying that she and her parliamentary colleagues do not trust him.

“He breached the trust of our team – we take that very seriously,” she said. “We trust each other and we don’t trust him. Our team values trust extremely.”

Mr Turner has been a vocal critic of Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker in recent months, calling for a royal commission into the state of the NT Police force after nearly 80 per cent of respondents to a police union survey said they had no faith in Mr Chalker to continue in the role and concerns around the lack of health and well-being services for police members, high attrition rates and general mismanagement by top brass.

Ms Fyles and Police Minister Kate Worden have repeatedly backed Mr Chalker even as evidence grows of his potential involvement in corruption and perverting the course of justice during the police’s murder investigation into Constable Zach Rolfe for the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker.

Mr Turner earlier this month stated he was referring Mr Chalker and the NT Police’s investigation into Constable Rolfe to the federal Attorney General and Prime Minister after a previously redacted internal police report was exposed by the NT Independent that he said showed “manipulation of evidence, failure to disclose relevant material and the appearance of a perversion of justice”.

While continuing to refuse to explain how Mr Turner had lost the trust of his Labor colleagues after being cleared of wrongdoing on radio yesterday, Ms Fyles said any potential run by Mr Turner for Labor pre-selection in the seat of Blain at the next election was “a matter for the party”.

Mr Turner did not respond to a request for comment last night.