CLP Leader Lia Finocchiaro was sworn in as the Territory’s 14th Chief Minister at a ceremony at Government House Wednesday morning, where she and her deputy Gerard Maley gave themselves every portfolio on an interim basis to “continue with the business of government” until the full Cabinet is sworn in next week, she said.
ANALYSIS: The election carnage was devastatingly brutal and somehow beautiful in its fury and righteousness. Most of the Labor bastards who thought they owned the Territory were put in their place by Territorians.
The Country Liberal Party has defeated Territory Labor in an election landslide that has seen Lia Finocchiaro elected the first female CLP Chief Minister in the Territory’s history.
EXCLUSIVE: A corruption investigation into Deputy Chief Minister Chansey Paech’s previous shares in a liquor wholesale company has been blocked by the Labor Government, which refused to release portions of Cabinet records that would show if Mr Paech declared a conflict of interest during Cabinet discussions about the NT Government’s role in federal grog bans in remote communities being lifted, the NT Independent can reveal.
Labor’s Wanguri candidate Shlok Sharma has released a list of endorsements from high-profile Labor powerbrokers, including a couple who wrote a character reference letter for a convicted paedophile two years ago, a gas lobbyist with a secret client list and a fifth floor staffer who helped run Labor’s 2020 election campaign that misused taxpayer money.
NT VOTES 2024: The NT general election will take place on Saturday, August 24, with approximately 155,000 eligible Territorians casting their ballot for their local Member of the Legislative Assembly. The NT Independent has provided a list of all registered candidates running and their pitch to you. SEE THE FULL LIST.
EXCLUSIVE: Former chief minister Natasha Fyles charged taxpayers to book a “Julius deluxe” room at Caesar’s Palace on the Las Vegas strip as part of her controversial US trip last September, as well as two nights at the Trump Waikiki resort in Hawaii, but she later cancelled the stays after the NT Independent first disclosed them and as public outrage grew, records obtained through Freedom of Information laws show.
EXCLUSIVE: The most boring Territory election campaign in recent memory may have a bit of life breathed into it yet, as high-profile Alice Springs businessman, anti-crime campaigner and Action For Alice administrator Darren Clark says he is eyeing a run as an independent.
The first official day of the 2024 election campaign kicked off in Palmerston on Thursday, as both major parties took to the battleground satellite city for press conferences, while an independent MLA found himself saving the day for the CLP when a couple of countrymen from Wadeye crashed the party’s presser making its politicians uncomfortable.
The NT Office of the ICAC has ejected the NT Independent from a national anti-corruption conference held at the Darwin Convention Centre, after the editor explained he wanted to ask some questions of the delegates, which resulted in a 12-month trespass notice being issued by NT Police.
EDITORIAL: DIPL chief executive Andrew Kirkman will not resign and will not be sacked, Chief Minister Eva Lawler has now confirmed, after a judge found he misled the court, attempted to blackmail a female staffer, inflicted a mental health injury on her and acted in an “aggressive, threatening…and inappropriate manner” during a meeting that was secretly recorded.
NT Government ministers will be subject to new “controls and processes” for managing their conflicts of interest following another internal government review, with no specific penalties put in place for those who breach the new guidelines.
