Under fire Labor Minister Chansey Peach used his parliamentary powers to shut down a censure motion against Chief Minister Eva Lawler brought by the CLP over her failure to hold him responsible for his actions, while senior federal Labor politicians have refused to voice support for Mr Paech.

CLP Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro brought the censure motion against Ms Lawler Thursday afternoon “for her failure to lead the Territory with integrity and failure to uphold the standards set under the ministerial code of conduct [as well as] failure to follow the rules”.

Meanwhile, federal Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy and federal Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour have refused to say if they support Mr Paech, after the NT Independent revealed on Tuesday that he purchased shares in a liquor wholesale company that supplies alcohol to Alice Springs two months before the grog bans on remote NT communities were lifted and while he was involved in Cabinet discussions about the NT Government’s approach.

Both Ms McCarthy and Ms Scrymgour have not responded to questions about Mr Paech’s conduct, while CLP Senator Jacinta Price called for the “morally bankrupt” Mr Paech to resign immediately.

Ms Price told Sky News on Thursday that Mr Paech was not being honest with Territorians and that his role as Deputy Chief Minister was untenable.

“He had a responsibility to the people of the Northern Territory, to our most marginalised .. he should have declared his conflict of interest [in Cabinet] at the time he was arguing for these bans to be lifted,” she said.

“If [the shares] didn’t mean that much, why did he divest them when he became Deputy Chief Minister? What changed? Aside from the fact I believe he thought he could do it quietly after the realisation of what happened to Natasha Fyles.

“The lifting of those alcohol bans, I mean, that created absolute destruction in our communities and I can’t believe just how disgraceful his actions and his behaviour are as he is now trying to hold on to this job.”

Mr Paech purchased the $436 in Metcash shares in May 2022 and held them while Aboriginal Affairs Minister and Minister for Town Camps in direct contravention of the ministerial code of conduct which forbids ministers from owning shares in a company that could create a conflict with their duties. He divested them two days after Ms Fyles resigned for her own shares scandal.

He has repeatedly refused to stand down and maintained he has done nothing wrong, while refusing to clearly state if he had informed his Cabinet colleagues about his conflict of interest when discussing the government’s response to the removal of the Stronger Futures bans.

Ms Lawler said on Tuesday that she did not recall him disclosing it, but then refused on Wednesday to release the minutes of Cabinet meetings that would show if he declared his conflict. She said in Parliament the public can wait 30 years for those documents to be released in accordance with convention.

‘Integrity crisis’ grows as censure motion blocked: CLP

Ms Finocchiaro brought the censure motion forward after Ms Lawler continued to bat away questions again over Mr Paech’s apparent failures to disclose the shares to Cabinet.

But Mr Paech as Leader of Government Business shut it down before it could be debated, which also would have permitted Labor to defend Mr Paech’s conduct.

Independent MLA Robyn Lambley could be heard yelling in the chamber that Labor was “killing democracy” by not permitting the debate to proceed.

Ms Finocchiaro said later that Labor’s “integrity crisis” was growing.

“Just when Territorians thought Labor’s integrity crisis couldn’t get any worse, Chansey Paech, in an extraordinary act of self-interest, used his power during Question Time to shut down a censure of Eva Lawler for her failure to act on his shares scandal,” she said.

“The CLP continued for the third day of Parliament to ask questions of Eva Lawler around her failure to take action as required by the ministerial code of conduct and her failure to confirm how Chansey Paech and Natasha Fyles handled his conflict in Cabinet at the time it [was] discussing the expiration of Stronger Futures.

“The irony of having the person Eva Lawler is protecting, stand up to protect her from a censure motion should not be lost on Territorians. It is clear to the CLP that Eva Lawler is protecting Chansey Paech because if he goes, so does she.”