NT Parliament erupted into a public mud-slinging match on Wednesday afternoon, with politicians from both major political parties throwing their past indiscretions and scandals at one another during debate about “improving integrity in Parliament”.

Accusations of clandestine toilet dealings, mocking veterans, misuse of public resources, a cocaine sex scandal and others were all thrown around the Chamber as both Labor and the CLP attacked each other for not doing enough to restore integrity to Parliament while the public’s trust continues to wane.

NT Greens Member for Nightcliff Kat McNamara moved a motion to get the Legislative Assembly to recognise “the importance of integrity in our parliamentary system” by ensuring decisions are made “in the best interests of Territorians”, while acknowledging that “public trust in politics is at an all-time low…due to the influence of lobbyists and vested corporate interests in our politics”.

McNamara added that the CLP Government needed to establish an “effective” lobbyist register, not the flawed one introduced this week, to ensure in-house lobbyists are registered, as well as third-party lobbyists, enforce penalties for breaches of the register, ensure the publishing of ministerial diaries so the public know who ministers are meeting with and introducing a four-year cooling off period for ministers taking jobs in fields they dealt with as ministers.

“The public made it clear that they want increased transparency; they are losing trust in the major parties,” McNamara said, acknowledging the CLP had announced their lobbyist register before the motion so they would not have to “vote on anything the Greens proposed”.

Their register, announced on Tuesday, contained none of the details McNamara was seeking and was criticised by the Centre for Public Integrity for having “gaping holes”, including not requiring major lobbyists from registering and failing to disclose diaries.

“Unfortunately, it appears that the CLP members have gone weak at the knees when it came time to stand strong…to implement a weak lobbyist register to appease their big-business donors,” McNamara said. “The ultimate weakness a government can show is capitulation to corporate vested interests – this is what is on display here in this toothless, gutless lobbyist register.”

Opposition Labor Leader Selena Uibo said McNamara’s motion would “raise the bar” of the CLP’s lobbyist register and acknowledged the high level of distrust the public has for NT politicians.

But she then claimed that Labor had taken a “strong position” about establishing a lobbyist register “prior to the election”.

They pledged one, but never committed to opening up ministers’ diaries to the public and had eight years in government to introduce a register.

“The Chief Minister has ducked and weaved her way around a host of things that she enthusiastically spruiked that she would do…she has stepped back and washed her hands of any type of commitment to the things she called for as opposition leader just over six months ago,” Ms Uibo said.

She pointed to Ms Finocchiaro claiming in opposition that all her MLAs would divest their shareholdings early last year, but the NT Independent revealed that as of last week, Education Minister Jo Hersey still had Telstra shares listed on her register of members’ interests forms.

“Why are you holding on to this six months into government, when the Chief Minister told you to sell them, get rid of them, whatever?” she said.

“Being caught out by the NT Independent is probably not a fun thing. It was made public and maybe that was the trigger [to finally divest]. Maybe she does not respect her leader and totally ignored those clear words from Chief Minister Finocchiaro…. Maybe she was on the jet plane or at brunch.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Dheran Young got in on the action, saying restoring trust in public officials “requires leadership”.

“The CLP has a history of having a complete lack of understanding of the crucial role that trust and integrity plays in government,” he said. “If its members wanted to show true changes from the colours of the CLP predecessors they would have, but they did not.”

CLP Leader of Government Business Steve Edgington weighed in at that point, saying it was “interesting” to receive a “lecture from the Labor Party around integrity, openness and transparency”, pointing to Michael Gunner’s infamous “Restoring integrity to Parliament” document that he failed to deliver.

“For those opposite to be questioning us here today is an absolute joke,” Mr Edgington said. “This is a Labor Opposition which only a couple weeks ago had one of their staffers…getting caught pinning up a political protest poster inside the men’s toilets on the fifth floor.

“The previous Labor government had a litany of integrity crises over the last eight years.”

Mr Edgington then listed a few highlights, starting with Ms Uibo being found in breach of the Information Act while Attorney-General for party political advertising in government material (which the CLP was also found to have engaged in this week); Chansey Paech’s shares in a grog wholesale company that he bought two months before the Labor government opened up dry communities to alcohol; Natasha Fyles resigning in a shares scandal; Mr Paech using taxpayer money to buy fuel for a holiday to Adelaide; Mr Young doing the same to go to NSW; Mr Young threatening a sitting MLA while an adviser; former police minister Brent Potter’s racist Facebook posts that he hid ahead of preselection; and current Labor Member for Arafura being exposed for having killed a woman with his car in 2009 that the public was not informed about by the party.

“All four Labor members opposite have been caught out on integrity issues, yet here they are trying to lecture us about integrity,” he said.

“We have not even mentioned Labor’s infamous cocaine sex scandal – does anyone remember that?”

CLP Member for Drysdale Clinton Howe then took a shot at the Greens, saying their “holier than thou” attitude was disingenuous.

“It has come to my attention that twice the Greens party has broken social media policy,” he said, without explaining the breach, soliciting laughter in the Chamber.

He then claimed, without evidence, that he was “made aware” that McNamara “mocked a veteran who stands at attention for the national anthem”.

Despite calls for Mr Howe to withdraw the accusation without any evidence, Deputy Speaker Brian O’Gallagher said “he is okay” to make the unusual accusation.

“I note that if the government is to come under fire, we should all be very honest with ourselves as none of us are above reproach,” Mr Howe concluded.

Mr Paech then said he had been a politician for 15 years and “acknowledge that there are things I could have done better, just as there are things that the Members for Barkly and Katherine could have done better”.

“This is not the time or the opportunity to act like children and bring up historical issues to try and win points on your political point scoring blackboard, this is an opportunity to look at what the Member for Nightcliff has put forward,” Mr Paech said.

He then defended politicians taking jobs with industries they oversaw as ministers upon leaving Parliament.

Independent Member for Johnston Justine Davis said she had a lot of questions about the CLP’s lobbyist register and “how open it will be”.

“The overwhelming sentiment I heard from my community [while door-knocking during the election] was that they no longer trusted politicians,” she said.

“They were frustrated with the secrecy and closed-door conversations. They wanted representatives they could trust, leaders they believed would act in their best interests and would be transparent and open. This was by far the most significant issue raised with me, bigger even than community safety or cost of living concerns.

“Democracy works best when we elect representatives who are transparent, accountable and engaged with the people we serve.

“The disillusionment with parliamentary politics is clear in our community and it has not happened by accident.”

McNamara then pointed out that in 2014, it was revealed former CLP chief minister Denis Burke, Ms Finocchiaro’s father-in-law, was on the federal lobbyist register for Halikos Group, but the CLP appointed him head of the Development Consent Authority, giving him final say over what developments went ahead in the Territory.

She also raised Nicole Manison’s recent appointment with Tamboran and Michael Gunner’s previous gig with Fortescue (now KPMG) as reasons why the public don’t trust politicians making decisions in the public’s best interest. Under the CLP’s lobbyist register, neither one would have to register as a lobbyist.

“This is exactly why we need a proper lobbyist register, not the spineless one that the CLP has introduced,” she said. “I do not understand the arguments of saying ‘well, two decades ago you did this’ and ‘but you did this’.

“We are all terrible. Let us do better. There should be no argument over trying to be better.”

The CLP used its numbers to defeat McNamara’s motion 17 – 7.