Chief Minister Michael Gunner resigned while he and his office are currently under investigation by the NT’s anti-corruption body, the ICAC and an independent MLA have confirmed.

UPDATED: Chief Minister Michael Gunner has announced his shock resignation while delivering this morning’s budget in Parliament.

UPDATED: Treasurer and Chief Minister Michael Gunner says the Territory’s finances are in a better position than previously forecast, thanks to an unanticipated increase in federal GST payments figures show, with minor cost-savings made by the government, which he claimed will result in a surplus budget by 2026 – the same year net debt is scheduled to reach more than $9.4 billion.

The Gunner Government has not properly implemented many key budget repair measures it claimed it has and has no effective way of measuring government savings or whether it can ever get back to a sustainable financial position, a scathing Auditor General’s report has found.

The Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet has refused to explain incomplete travel records provided to the NT Independent last year under FOI laws that showed Michael Gunner’s then-deputy chief of staff and brother-in-law approved the use of taxpayer funds for campaign purposes in apparent contravention of the law.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner has thrown his support behind beleaguered Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker in Parliament, in the face of three NT Independent articles this week based on different detectives’ diary notes that contradict Mr Chalker’s claims that he was not involved in the process to charge Constable Zach Rolfe with murder in 2019.

NT Parliament descended into farce again Wednesday afternoon, with the Gunner Government using parliamentary technicalities to block the Opposition from asking the Chief Minister about his role in the Zach Rolfe ICAC investigation and the Speaker kicking the Opposition Leader out of Parliament, later admitting she was “confused”.

The Opposition has used Parliament to move a censure motion against Chief Minister Michael Gunner for rejecting a public inquiry into allegations of political interference in the Constable Zach Rolfe affair and called on him to stand aside while the ICAC investigates.

A senior adviser to the Chief Minister allegedly told an Alice Springs businessman to “fuck off” twice after he had raised concerns about crime issues during a government visit to the town last week, independent MLA Robyn Lambley said in Parliament.

An independent MLA’s motion to establish a non-partisan parliamentary committee to investigate solutions for the crime crisis currently gripping the Territory, that was to focus first on crime in Central Australia, has been defeated by the Gunner Government.

Any issues of illegal conduct around the charging of Constable Zach Rolfe found through the upcoming coronial inquest into the death of Kumnajayi Walker would be sent to the Police Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions – the very positions alleged to have been compromised by “political interference” – according to the Coroners Act.