Federal Labor MP Luke Gosling has denied allegations he physically assaulted NT Administrator David Connolly at a public event over the weekend, while police confirmed on Tuesday they are investigating the incident.

It is alleged by Mr Connolly that Mr Gosling physically assaulted him at the Thai Festival in Darwin on Saturday, which both men attended in their official roles.

The NT Independent understands it is alleged Mr Gosling elbowed Mr Connolly in the torso at the event at some point.

Mr Connolly’s official secretary Craig Kitchen did not respond to the NT Independent’s questions Tuesday morning, but issued an email that stated the matter was referred to NT Police.

“An incident occurred during His Honour the Administrator’s official attendance at a community event over the weekend,” the email from Mr Kitchen said.

“The matter has been referred to the Northern Territory Police Force. As the matter is under investigation, no further comment will be made regarding the incident or the parties involved.”

NT Police later confirmed they are investigating “an incident involving the Administrator of the Northern Territory”.

“It is alleged the incident occurred during a public event on Saturday 18 July 2026,” police media director Mark Wilton said. “The investigation is in its early stages and no further comment can be provided at this time.”

Sky News reported two detectives attended Mr Connolly’s office on Tuesday morning, spending two hours taking his statement.

Member for Solomon Luke Gosling at the Thai Festival in Darwin on Sat July 18. Pic: Facebook

Mr Gosling denied the allegation he assaulted Mr Connolly.

“These are ridiculous allegations that I categorically deny,” he said in a media statement Tuesday.

“I’ve had no dealings with the Administrator since congratulating him following the announcement of his appointment late last year.”

Mr Connolly’s appointment sparked widespread outrage in January after his long history of public and social media commentary was revealed, with his comments labelled racist, bigoted, as well as “reprehensible and offensive”, targeting Aboriginal Territorians, women and transgendered people, while joking about domestic violence and date rape.

Mr Gosling was openly critical of Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro’s “captain’s pick” of Mr Connolly and labelled it a “disgrace” back in February.

“The Administrator holds an important position in the Northern Territory and that’s what makes this such a bad decision,” he told ABC Radio at the time.

“A really bad decision because there’s been a deliberate decision by the Chief Minister…to go with an exclusionary individual rather than an inclusionary person that would have brought Territorians together and represented all Territorians.”

Mr Gosling also called the social media posts “concerning” and said Ms Finocchiaro knew “exactly what message she was sending, in particular to Aboriginal Territorians, but [also] to the rest of the Territory” by appointing Mr Connolly.

David Connolly shoved a man during a business conference in 2023 and later threw water in his face.

The NT Independent reported in May that an internal Federal Government briefing, released through FOI laws, was completed after a meeting between the NT Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet and the federal department responsible for reporting to the executive council and the Prime Minister’s Office about administrators for territories, which raised concerns about Mr Connolly’s lack of qualifications, as well as his public and social media comments before he was officially appointed.

The FOI documents also cast doubts on Ms Finocchiaro’s claims she was not aware of Mr Connolly’s social media and other public commentary before selecting him for the role.

She later demanded that Territorians show “some respect” for Mr Connolly and that “people can make mistakes, people can have personal views”.

It was revealed in February that Mr Connolly had physically assaulted anti-fracking activist Phil Scott at a Developing Northern Australia conference in 2023. Video showed Mr Connolly pushing Mr Scott and another video later showed him throwing water in Mr Scott’s face.

While lawyers told the NT Independent Mr Connolly’s actions could be classified as assault under the NT Criminal Code, no charges were pursued against him by Mr Scott. Mr Connolly refused to comment on the assault when the video was released in February.