Territory Labor Leader Selena Uibo needs to show leadership and end the long-running Manuel Brown scandal by taking decisive action and being “upfront and honest” with Territorians, federal Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour has said, adding the ongoing scandal is “not good for the Australian Labor Party” or the Northern Territory.

The comments come amid growing speculation in political circles about the future of Ms Uibo’s leadership after allowing the Manuel Brown scandal to continue unabated for weeks and not moving to take any action until Tuesday, after he had lied multiple times to the public and Ms Uibo about his dealings. Ms Uibo dumped him as Opposition whip, but has allowed him to retain his shadow portfolios and $18,000 in extra salary for sitting on a parliamentary committee.

The NT Independent first revealed last month that Mr Brown had lost his licence for three months late last year for racking up speeding fines, which both he and Ms Uibo hid from the public. It was later revealed Mr Brown was issued another speeding violation in February after his licence was reinstated, which he reportedly did not tell Ms Uibo about. He killed a woman in a car crash in 2009 that he has also repeatedly lied about and failed to disclose after being preselected in 2023.

It was also later revealed that Mr Brown allowed two of his underage and unlicensed children to drive his vehicle, which Ms Uibo first denied publicly, but later suggested he had not told her about.

Despite lying to the public and the leader numerous times, Ms Uibo has continued to back Mr Brown, which many believe is because she needs his vote to control the numbers in a deeply divided Labor caucus, but Ms Scrymgour’s comments show the matter is now affecting the public’s perception of Labor overall.

Ms Scrymgour said on Mix 104.9 Wednesday morning that Ms Uibo needed to “show some leadership” and deal with Mr Brown, adding removing him as Opposition whip was insufficient for what Mr Brown has done.

“This is her responsibility,” Ms Scrymgour said. “I don’t think the sanctions go far enough, but that’s a matter for her.

“I think that Manuel should have been completely stripped of his portfolios as well. The consequences have to reflect [what he did] because what has happened doesn’t pass the pub test and people want transparency.

“Selena needs to provide those answers in an honest way to Territorians.

“Manuel and Selena need to focus on what’s important here and we need to be the best Opposition, so Selena needs to provide some leadership.”

Instead, Ms Uibo’s office has not responded to the NT Independent’s questions about further matters involving Mr Brown and the questionable $450 a day in travel allowance he is claiming to stay at least half the time in his Palmerston home when in town for parliamentary business instead of in his electorate.

Ms Uibo has also remained silent on Mr Brown’s failure to disclose assets and other items on his register of members’ interest forms and incorrect claims on other internal government documents, which is in breach of the MLA code of conduct.

Political observers have questioned Ms Uibo’s handling of the scandal, including the decision to put Mr Brown in front of cameras on Monday at an unusual press conference in which he contradicted himself repeatedly and raised more questions than answers.

She also unusually handballed the decision to discipline Mr Brown to caucus at a meeting that is not scheduled for another couple of weeks, which suggests she is uncertain she controls the numbers in her own party.

“She’s the Leader of the Opposition, she needs to act,” Ms Scrymgour said.

“It is a privilege to serve in these [political] roles and the responsibility as part of that privilege is to be upfront with people, do the right thing and make sure that we’re all following the rules.

“This needs to be done and she should have been upfront and honest. We shouldn’t have had three weeks of this being in the media. It should have been dealt with.”

Dysfunction in Opposition Leader’s office as chief of staff missing in action

Adding to the dysfunction in Labor at the moment is the absence of Ms Uibo’s chief of staff Mary Fall, who went on planned leave at the end of Labor’s woeful performance at Estimates hearings but has not indicated when, or if, she will return.

Questions about her absence have been ignored and follow reports last month that a junior staffer who later left the office raised complaints about bullying and feeling “culturally unsafe” in Ms Uibo’s office.

Ms Uibo’s office has been run in an acting capacity since last month by failed Labor candidate for Wanguri Shlok Sharma. Mr Sharma was also campaign manager for Territory Labor’s disastrous 2024 election campaign which saw the party reduced to four bush seats.

Despite previously committing to releasing a review undertaken by national party executive members into Labor’s 2024 election loss, Ms Uibo recently backflipped and told the NT Independent she would not be making the review public.

Party members have quietly called for the release of the review so that lessons can be learned and the party can move forward without the residual baggage of the dysfunctional Gunner-Fyles-Manison years.

Ms Uibo appeared on ABC Radio Darwin on Wednesday morning to take more questions about the Brown scandal instead of holding the CLP Government to account. She said she was considering changes to shadow portfolios, but that was brought about after former deputy leader Dheran Young quit his portfolio responsibilities when he was rolled as deputy leader last month.

Despite the lies and information being withheld from her, Ms Uibo said “I do trust Manuel Brown”, before deflecting to other MLAs’ travel allowance claims.

She also responded to a question about her leadership by stating “nothing is safe in politics”, adding she takes the role of leader “very seriously”.

She told ABC she would continue to “support Manuel in the work that he does” and ruled out booting him from caucus.

The Labor turmoil started shortly after Ms Uibo and Mr Brown knifed Mr Young to replace him with newly-elected Member for Nightcliff Ed Smelt, which the party ironically claimed was done to “win back the trust and confidence” of voters in the northern suburbs – their former heartland that was wiped out under Mr Sharma’s watch at the 2024 NT general election.