EDITORIAL: Selena Uibo was heavily involved in and received her first glimpse of governing by watching eight-years of a Labor government that started with a lot of good will the day it was elected in 2016, but ended up pissing it all away, mired in scandal, ego, and corruption and arrogance and everything they had denounced the previous Giles CLP government for doing by the time Territorians threw them out of office in 2024.

It was the Gunner-Fyles-Manison years as they will come to be known, that saw a fertile political party voted in with a massive majority, armed with potential to set about changing what ailed the Territory, but instead got caught up in the same self-interest and self-preservation that marred others.

It’s always the self-interest ahead of the greater good in the Territory. By its politicians, public servants and others who are expected to lead. Territory Labor’s policies became a reflection of its deep dysfunction and unwillingness to engage or listen. And then they were gone or at least thrust into Opposition with only four bush members.

The party’s problems this week, which have rolled-out in an almost comedic-like fashion, are a reflection of what happens when you don’t let the sunlight in, expose the darkest parts of the party and learn lessons for the future.

Selena has shown us she is not up for that, and as one Labor member remarked this week, she is “a creature of Gunner’s” who has shown no interest in stamping out the problems of the past that led to their current predicament.

There is a report into Labor’s devastating 2024 election result in a desk somewhere that Selena does not want to reflect on. A report that clearly makes her uncomfortable.

Late Friday afternoon – eight months after claiming she would release the internal election post-mortem – she responded firmly to the NT Independent’s questions about the report by stating its release is now the responsibility of the party itself and the “national secretariat”.

“Territorians sent Labor a clear message in 2024,” she said in a brief email response. “I accept that, and where we fell short.

“The review has been accepted, and reforms are underway to rebuild Territory Labor and earn back trust.”

This report must be worse than anyone thought.

And that new buzz line about “earning back trust”. It is difficult to do when you don’t open everything up and level with the public about how badly you messed things up.

Believe it or not, that’s what the real Labor party members want in all of this. To get everything in the open, the flawed policies, the bad management, the conflicts, the unsuitable people in senior roles, the unelectable people they brought in to serve their own interests, everything.

The problem for Selena is that regardless of what’s in that report, she is running this party much the same way Gunner and his acolytes did by keeping reviews secret.

And she wonders why she has bullying and racism allegations in her office committed by people whom she has no idea how to manage and who probably have been named and shamed in that election review for past misdeeds.

Manuel Brown scandal and cover-up degrades not only Labor but Parliament overall

Which brings us to Manuel Brown. He is not a fit and proper person to be in our Parliament – he never was, this week just offered more hard evidence that can’t be ignored.

This is a man who killed a woman with his car in 2009, and then tried to pretend it never happened in 2023 when he sought to be trusted with a seat in Parliament, and then Labor, led by Natasha Fyles, let him lie about it when he was caught out.

Hiding the fact his licence was suspended for racking up more than a dozen demerit points in speeding tickets in his taxpayer-funded car this week is the least of his indiscretions and cover-ups, but does show he’s learned nothing from the previous scandal. And Selena too, for helping him cover it up.

Which she finally explained this week was because she didn’t want the public to be reminded of the crash he caused and was convicted for.

There are other issues. The tricky wording of his statement on Friday, claiming his 14-year-old child did not drive the “taxpayer-funded vehicle” was the type of spin and double speak people hate from politicians. Note he did not deny his unlicensed child drove any vehicle, just not his “taxpayer-funded vehicle”.

This requires a full investigation as a potential law has been broken and given his conduct to date, a lot more we don’t know about. We’re still not satisfied that taxpayer money hasn’t been misused amid all of this cover-up and claims of different drivers.

The one certain is that Brown is a man who requires some serious counselling. After we revealed the car crash that killed the Katherine nurse in 2023, Labor and Brown issued a press release claiming it was a “multi-vehicle accident” and that the hero Brown had called for assistance while rendering first aid on the victim.

He did no such thing. The court records show, and the victim’s son said his mother was trapped in the vehicle and needed to be extricated with the Jaws of Life. How exactly did Manuel Brown perform first aid on her when she was trapped?

More pointedly as the son told us back in 2023: “Would you let your mother get first aid from the guy who just hit her?”

The lowest of the low for Brown was when his father-in-law called into Mix FM this week to claim Brown didn’t kill the woman at all and that she died “of other things” in the ambulance on the way to hospital.

We don’t know why this man Jack would say that, but it stands to reason he heard it from the man behind the wheel. Which suggests Brown has lied to his own family about the matter.

Brown has been allowed to lie about this incident since before he was elected – indeed to get elected – and has just been emboldened to continue lying by Selena Uibo, who has taken no action outside of quietly letting him know that speeding tickets are unacceptable, but if you do rack them up, lying will save your job.

He doesn’t need a remedial driver training program as he claimed he would take, he needs a team of psychiatrists.

If Selena wasn’t so afflicted with the Territory Labor syndrome of self-interest above all else, she would boot Brown from caucus, effectively ending his political career as he is not strong enough to survive as an independent MLA.

But she won’t because in the likelihood that Labor won a by-election in Arafura, the new member would be from the left faction of the party and not necessarily support Uibo’s plans in caucus or her leadership, which is clearly hanging on by strands at the moment.

All of this means Territorians and the people of Arafura are left with a man with zero integrity representing them, who has lied to save his own skin several times over the last three years. This further degrades the position of MLA and lowers standards of accountability.

We are all burdened with him thanks to Selena Uibo and her political self-interest.

Which brings us back to Selena’s refusal to condemn or release the report into that terrible Gunner-Fyles trainwreck of a government she was a part of that we all suffered for eight years.

Back in 2016, then-CLP opposition leader Gary Higgins came out the front of Parliament following the party’s worst election loss and disowned the Mills-Giles CLP government.

He apologised to Territorians for inflicting it on us and the gesture was seen as purging the ghosts of yet another government full of self-interested narcissists.

But Selena, given every opportunity to do the right thing has not done that.

The senior staffer involved in the bullying and racial discrimination remains in the office in a toxic environment.

The review would surely have found that staffer and the other one co-running the fourth floor were complicit in the disaster that was the Gunner-Fyles-Manison years.

But don’t expect that to ever be made public.

While it would go a long way to exorcising the demons left over from that period and bring about much-needed renewal and reform to the badly damaged Territory Labor Party, it wouldn’t be in Selena’s interest.