The Country Liberal Party faces being stripped of its federal party status by the Australian Electoral Commission following the resignation of Senator Sam McMahon, despite the party president’s claims of being affiliated with the Nationals.

Parts of a secret review of the NT ICAC Act commissioned by the Gunner Government have been released through a public “discussion paper”, including recommendations that politicians not be investigated by the ICAC for unsatisfactory conduct and that individuals found to have engaged in misconduct not be publicly named.

UPDATED: The Country Liberal Party says its vice president has been ‘reprimanded’ after telling a group of vaccine protesters that the party’s “strategy” is to support the vaccine mandate but that many members don’t believe in it, then encouraged the crowd to run for the CLP at the next election to “kick all of these fools” out of Parliament.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner has refused to answer written questions from an independent MLA about when he became aware his brother-in-law and former deputy chief of staff approved the use of taxpayer money for Labor’s 2020 election campaign travel, in contravention of rules meant to protect against the misuse of public funds.

The Gunner Labor Government is wasting taxpayer money sending the MLA they kicked out of caucus last year to London at taxpayer expense to take part in a parliamentary junket, the Opposition CLP says.

A secret consultancy contract between the Department of Health and Ernst and Young that saw procurement rules violated to inflate a $700,000 contract to more than $4.3 million through variations has been referred to the ICAC by the Opposition and an independent MLA.

The Territory Labor caucus and the NT’s head public servant have refused to say when they became aware of alleged election rorts perpetrated by the Chief Minister’s Office during the 2020 election caretaker period – or if any of them reported suspected improper conduct to the anti-corruption body in accordance with mandatory reporting laws.