CLP Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro is calling on Labor backbenchers and independent MLAs to back a no-confidence motion in the Fyles Government when Parliament resumes next week, for what she says is Labor’s ongoing failure to keep Territorians safe.

“This drastic measure is not taken lightly but is reflective of the distraught voices of Territorians who are sick of suffering the consequences of a government failing to do its job,” she said.

“When you can’t sleep safely at night, your government has failed you. When you don’t know if your child’s class will have a teacher, or your car will be still there after getting groceries, your government has failed you. That’s not the Territory we want to live in.

“Here in the Territory, it used to be about protecting our lifestyle, now it’s about protecting our lives and livelihoods. Under Labor, Territorians live their lives not looking forward but looking over their shoulder.”

If it gets up, the no-confidence motion would be the first against the Labor Government since 2019 and the first for Ms Finocchiaro since she took over as Opposition Leader in 2020.

But if it fails to get the numbers next week, it would not be debated until the next sittings in March.

Ms Finocchiaro said the Labor Government had failed to keep people safe, failed to deliver essential frontline services and failed to address “crises” in Police, Health and Education. She added it also failed to manage the economy with record debt and “skyrocketing cost of living”.

The no-confidence motion also comes on the heels of the government’s handling of alcohol bans on remote communities, which saw Chief Minister Natasha Fyles backflip from her previous position and pledge to reinstate the blanket bans this week at the request of the Federal Labor Government.

Questions have also been raised about how the Fyles Government intends to spend the massive $250 million kicked in by the Albanese Government to address social problems in Alice Springs.

Ms Finocchiaro has called for an audit of that spending and other funding to ensure it makes on the ground where it is needed.

“It’s really important that taxpayers dollars are spent in the most effective way possible and what we have is a Labor Government that doesn’t measure the performance of its progress or its outcome,” she said.

“Territorians have lost trust in the Fyles Labor Government. This government has got itself into a situation where it doesn’t know where the money goes, which is why the audit is so important. People don’t have confidence in Labor to manage that.

“Will $250 million disappear into government departments and be spent in a way that the government choose how they report it or will it go to a central governing board that has a number of key stakeholders on it, where they are able to direct how those funds should be spent?”

Ms Fyles has blamed the previous Coalition government for allowing the alcohol bans in remote communities to lapse last year and said her government would be spending the newly announced money to improve services in Central Australia. She has not committed to ensuring stakeholders have a seat at the table to ensure the money is spent in the best places.

Parliament resumes on Tuesday for one week of sittings.