The Gunner Government has killed a motion that would have forced politicians and their staffers to be randomly drug tested as a condition of their employment.

The motion was put forward in Parliament this afternoon by the CLP, following the NT Independent revealing a Labor staffer and the party’s youth wing president in a Snapchat video snorting lines of a white substance believed to be cocaine through a $50 bill.

Harvie Stiller resigned from his job with Federal Member Luke Gosling over the video, but has not resigned as president of Young Labor and the party has not addressed the issue.

The “snifficant snorting scandal”, as it was dubbed in Parliament today by the CLP, was reminiscent of last year’s Labor cocaine sex scandal that saw MLA Mark Turner kicked out of caucus and Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s friend and senior adviser Kent Rowe forced to resign from his job for lying about an affair with a local sex worker. But both men remained in the Labor Party.

The latest scandal has raised further questions about an illegal drug culture inside the Labor Party and why neither the party nor the Chief Minister have taken any action to address the matter.

The CLP brought the motion forward that called for random drug testing of “all Members of the Legislative Assembly and Parliamentary staff” as a condition of their employment.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said the random drug testing was necessary to “breathe clean air” into Parliament after allegations of drug use amongst Labor staffers and political figures.

She also pointed out that NT Police officers are required to be drug-tested and that Labor politicians and staffers should not be “above the same level of scrutiny”.

“(The motion) is very straightforward, it’s not controversial,” she said.

“It’s just a simple thing we can all do to give a level of confidence and a level of clarity around what was, and now is again, a very murky issue.

“We certainly hope that the government agree and support the motion if they have nothing to hide. The longer this gets pushed to the side, ignored and obfuscated, the longer people will have question marks about what is going on in the ministerial offices upstairs.”

But the Gunner Government killed debate in Parliament and blocked it from being passed.

Small Business Minister Paul Kirby was the only member of government to speak to the matter, calling it “a waste of time” and based “on rumours” before gagging debate and putting the motion to a vote that saw it defeated 14 – 9.

Ms Finocchiaro said the longer Mr Gunner and the party went without addressing the latest scandal, the more trust would be lost in the community, saying his legacy as leader will be “crime, cocaine and cover-ups”.

“The Chief Minister is trying to play this down as some sort of acceptable 18th birthday party shenanigans, but ultimately why was the individual’s employment terminated after this came to light?” Ms Finocchiaro said.

“I think there’s some serious questions that the Chief Minister has to answer. Ultimately the fish rots from the head and this is what was so important and powerful about the Labor cocaine sex scandal a year ago, because it was clear that the cover-ups were covering the cover-ups and it was just snowballing into this enormous mash of information and avoidance of dealing with an issue.”