ANALYSIS: Faced with the biggest challenge of its first two months, the Lawler Labor Government failed this week to maintain the public’s confidence in government, that will see its dying days play out with the perception of tainted integrity that it will not be able to shake before August.
A minister buying shares in a liquor wholesaler that supplies Alice Springs with grog two months before his government played a major role in seeing alcohol bans lifted in remote communities is as glaring a conflict of interest as you will ever see. Even by NT political standards this is bad.
Chief Minister Eva Lawler had the opportunity to put her mark on the role and show us there is a difference between her and her predecessors who degraded our democracy to new lows. Instead, she showed us it’s more of the same old Territory Labor, which today resembles the Giles CLP government six months out from the 2016 election – imploding, in free-fall and unable to find any traction.
We now have a member of Cabinet in complete breach of the ministerial code of conduct for failing to follow the simple rule that states all ministers must divest their shareholdings in companies that present a conflict of interest. It doesn’t say invest in companies that present a conflict of interest, which is precisely what Chansey Paech did while Minister for Town Camps in 2022 and while advocating for the liquor bans to be lifted. It also doesn’t say divest them after 19 months when the heat gets turned up.
There is no defence to this, it is a flagrant breach of the rules and standards set for elected members. When a minister is caught, they need to resign to maintain the public’s confidence in government. That did not happen this week and Lawler will have to live with the repercussions.
The new Chief Minister has decided that the integrity of her Cabinet and the public’s confidence in its government is not as important as protecting the future federal political aspirations of one person.
By failing to take any action against Chansey Paech, she has forever stained her government’s reputation.
Even the scandal-plagued Giles CLP government, for all their shortcomings, knew the only way to end the distraction of a scandal was to sack whoever caused it to restore the public’s confidence and try to move on.
There is no question Paech needs to be sacked or forced to resign. The fact he wouldn’t do it himself is also telling. As Fyles said during her resignation, she had failed to live up to the high standards of elected officials and had to go.
The focus as the week wore on became whether Paech had disclosed his shares to his Cabinet colleagues while discussing the lifting of the Stronger Futures legislation. Lawler said she couldn’t recall him raising it and Paech, well, he wouldn’t provide a clear answer all week citing Cabinet confidentiality.
What’s clear is that Paech did discuss the lifting of the remote grog bans and regardless of whether he told his colleagues about his shares or not, he failed to properly manage his conflict of interest by engaging in the Cabinet discussions.
That is a serious ethical breach which needs to be investigated by a proper body while he stands down.
But it’s not in Chansey’s or Eva’s political interests for him to be held accountable and having to kick him out is apparently too inconvenient six months out from the next election, especially given the role he played in getting Lawler the top job.
The alternative, however, is much worse. Leaving a man in Cabinet who betrayed not only Territorians but his own Cabinet will cause tensions inside and has shattered whatever confidence the public had in this new administration that was only sworn in less than two months ago.
Labor’s stench of corruption continues unabated
Fyles left after failing to disclose shares she had inherited before entering politics which had created the perception that her decision not to investigate the alleged poisoning of Indigenous Territorians at Groote Eylandt as health minister was compromised. There was no way to explain or justify that.
Paech went out and bought his shares while a minister, raising basic questions about his integrity and judgment and whether he made decisions that were in the best interests of remote Territorians.
As we said about Fyles back in November, once you lose your credibility in politics, there’s no getting it back. It’s the only currency a politician has and as soon as you’re not taken seriously anymore, it’s the end of your political career.
The silence was deafening from Federal Labor this week. Assistant Minister for Aboriginal Australians Malarndirri McCarthy and Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour could not bring themselves to publicly comment on what Paech had done it was apparently so repugnant.
But CLP Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price called Paech out for his “utterly reprehensible” and “morally bankrupt” conduct that included his “betrayal of the NT and especially our most vulnerable”, stating that he needed to hand in his resignation immediately.
His ill-conceived personal investment, which he claimed was recommended to him by his many “financial advisers and accountants” will follow him for the rest of his political life. How could a minister think it was appropriate to invest in a booze supplier and appear to make profits while grog flowed to communities leading to record levels of domestic violence, crime and emergency hospital visitations?
Perception is everything in politics – it doesn’t matter how much the shares were worth – and as Price said, he directly hurt the community he was supposed to help.
How will that sit with bush voters come August?
Lawler started the week on a high when she launched Labor’s unofficial re-election campaign in her “Year Ahead” speech on Monday morning that was completely wiped from the public consciousness once Paech’s shares scandal came to light….and that’s what voters will remember when they go to the polls.
What does she think interstate businesspeople are saying when they see these public integrity issues play out with no resolution? It’s not encouraging private investment or attracting anyone to move to the Territory.
The stench of corruption has been emanating from this Labor Government for years, a toxic culture started by Michael Gunner that continues to fester. What we’ve seen again this week is that they simply do not care.
On Tuesday, Chansey Paech was asked if he thought he could survive the week. He replied: “I’ve got a good team of colleagues in Territory Labor”.
Is there anything a minister could do now that this government would not condone?
Lawler has shown us this week that political convenience is more important than integrity in government. What will voters show her?
Christopher Walsh is the editor of the NT Independent and formerly held roles as senior political reporter at the NT News and investigations producer at ABC Darwin. He is also co-author of ‘Crocs in the Cabinet: An Instruction Manual on How Not to Run a Government’, named by Nicole Manison as one of Territory Labor’s most favourite books of all time.
“Incompetence” would be a fitting title for a book about the f&*kf%st that is the:
sexual predator protecting (both Collins and the last one),
stacking of boards with Labor party members ,
10 billion in government debt and nothing to show for it except a bloated public service,
juvenile crime wave creating,
NT Labor Party