Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese says the lease of the Darwin Port to Chinese interests needs to be reviewed under proposed federal laws that aim to crack down on state and territory deals signed with China that fail to protect Australia’s national interests.
Territory Labor have filed a complaint with the NT Electoral Commission over postal votes allegedly being cast after the election night cutoff in a twist of election irony, after Labor itself was the subject of a complaint for setting up a taxpayer-funded email account to solicit postal votes.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s proposed new bill that would ban state and territory governments from entering into agreements with China without federal approval is not expected to affect the Darwin Port lease, but will provide greater scrutiny around Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s dealings with China, a Darwin-based Chinese policy expert says.
Vote count “recording errors” in one of the Territory’s most marginal seats that were only discovered yesterday has caused confusion for candidates, after it was revealed incorrect numbers were reported on Saturday night.
The only thing stopping Northern Territory voters from casting their postal vote after the election cut off, potentially swaying tight seats, is a signature and their own morals.
Outgoing Territory Alliance leader Terry Mills said the party’s backflip on fracking did not cost them the election, adding that he preferred losing his seat and the potential death of his party, over what he called “just fading away”.
The Gunner Government will form a majority, with the Labor party leading in 15 seats after recounts and revised two-candidate preferred counts on Monday, with 13 seats confirmed. The CLP will form official Opposition with an expected seven seats.
Malarndirri McCarthy is tabling a petition in the Senate today to keep two Northern Territory House of Representatives seats and is calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to support her private bill to allow it to pass through the lower house.
While Labor is still expected to claim the 13 seats needed for a majority government, key seats are still up in the air and some of Michael Gunner’s hand-picked cabinet ministers may be looking for new jobs by the end of the day.
The Gunner Labor Government has been re-elected but by late Saturday night it remained unclear how big its expected majority will be.
The CLP may capture the Palmerston seat of Brennan from Labor but with a lot of the vote still to be counted.
The results for all the seats and all the candidates, including two candidate preferred, for the NT election up to midnight Saturday.
