Territory Labor no longer has the moral authority to lead the Northern Territory or bring about much-needed reforms to reduce sexual and family violence after senior party members expressed their support in character references for convicted child rapist Kent Rowe ahead of his sentencing, a Senator says.

The NT Independent revealed on Wednesday that former Labor deputy chief minister Syd Stirling’s wife and backroom senior figure Jamie Gallacher, who is married to a Supreme Court Justice, supported Rowe in reference letters to the court to help him receive a lighter sentence because he had successfully assisted the party win the last two elections.

Rowe, who the sentencing judge found showed no remorse for his crimes, was sentenced to five years prison on November 9, suspended after 30 months, for the repeated rape of a female relative when she was a child over a six-year period, that continued after he was employed by Labor.

CLP Senator Jacinta Price said Territory Labor’s support of a convicted paedophile was the “worst of the worst”.

“It’s appalling that the Territory Labor Party can defend or make justifications for a lighter sentence for a child rapist simply because he has worked to help them win elections,” she said.

“If they are prepared to stand up for child rapists, it’s no wonder that victimised Territorians feel isolated, unheard, and feel like they are not being supported in any way.

“They do not have any moral currency … because they are clearly in support of perpetrators and child rapists and individuals that would seek to harm.”

Ms Price added that Labor can talk about reducing sexual and family violence in the Territory, but their actions to support a perpetrator who has shown no remorse for his crimes shows they are not serious.

“What do they stand for?” she said.

“They certainly don’t stand of vulnerable people in our communities. How can we expect them to create legislation to support the most vulnerable Territorians when they’re supporting a child rapist?

“They don’t have the interests of everyday people or victims of abuse in their hearts.”

Jamie Gallacher, who is married to Supreme Court Justice Jenny Blokland, was former chief minister Paul Henderson’s deputy chief of staff and a long-time Labor backroom figure that helped run the party for decades.

Letters obtained through the courts show that Mr Gallacher wrote to Chief Justice Michael Grant ahead of Rowe’s sentencing for raping a child to say that Rowe had “electoral success” for the Labor Party both at NT elections and federal elections.

Those comments were echoed in another letter from former deputy chief minister and party stalwart Syd Stirling’s wife Jenny Djerrkura who wrote in a character reference ahead of sentencing that Rowe had “showed such commitment and drive to the party” and that he “deserves a second chance”.

Current Labor secretary Karlee Dalton did not respond to questions about why the party would write letters of support for a convicted paedophile.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’s office also refused to comment or to say if she was aware that senior party figures had written letters of support for Rowe or how that could be explained to Territorians.

In Parliament on Thursday, Ms Fyles side-stepped questions about Rowe by saying only that “justice has been served”.

The culture and values of the current Labor government have long been called into question and brought to the forefront following the so-called Labor cocaine sex scandal in early 2021 and repeated allegations of drug use on the fifth floor of Parliament House, that former chief minister Michael Gunner admitted he had heard about but did not do anything.

In other letters to the court, Rowe’s wife and Darwin Alderman Rebecca Want de Rowe claimed Rowe had resigned from the party last year because he needed to “[remove] the toxic environment and people from his life”.

Labor offering ‘protections’ for ‘people who’ve done the wrong thing’: CLP

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said Territory Labor “needs to have a good hard look at itself around their values and the protections they afford people who’ve done the wrong thing”.

“These are highly serious criminal sanctions that have been placed on this individual who was very, very close to the senior members of our government and yet our government sit silently by with their integrity hanging in the balance,” she said.

Asked if she thought the letters of support for Rowe were part of an arrangement with senior Labor figures to keep him quiet about his knowledge of the party’s internal dealings, Ms Finocchiaro said she “would put nothing past Labor when it comes to secrecy”.

“We’ve seen the way in which they treat FOI applications with disdain, we see the way in which they shut down parliament every single day to avoid debate and avoid scrutiny,” she said. “I don’t think this government would stop at anything, it always puts itself before Territorians.”