Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker’s handling of the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker and subsequent murder charge against Constable Zach Rolfe is the main reason police officers have lost confidence in him, the NTPA has revealed.

NT Police Association president Paul McCue said on Friday morning at the union’s annual conference that the Yuendumu “critical incident” led to 80 per cent of more than a thousand police officers wanting Mr Chalker gone from the role.

It is a matter Mr McCue conceded is “difficult” to fix, and said that the Commissioner was “reluctant” to talk about it with the union, when he met with them for a closed-door meeting on Thursday.

Yet neither Mr McCue nor Police Minister Kate Worden have called on Mr Chalker to resign or be given the sack.

“It’s a difficult one,” Mr McCue said in response to the NT Independent’s question at a press conference about how Mr Chalker could fix the decisions he made around the Yuendumu shooting.

Constable Rolfe was found not guilty of murder and two related charges by a Supreme Court jury in March. Mr Chalker had claimed he was not involved in the decision to charge Constable Rolfe but that claim was contradicted by notes from detectives investigating the incident .

The ICAC is also currently investigating allegations of political interference in the decision to charge.

“Obviously, [the Yuendumu shooting] was one of the main reasons people had no confidence in him,” Mr McCue said.

“Of course, we’ve still got the coronial inquest, starting on the fifth of September to come.

“We’re still working through some internal matters with Constable Rolfe.

“So, there was obviously a reluctance to talk about that specific issue [by Mr Chalker], but we know it’s one of the main issues that’s divided our police force for some time, and there’s got to be a lot of work done around that. But of course, with the inquest coming up, there was very little spoken about that.”

The NT Independent reported on Wednesday that Constable Rolfe has been banned from entering police premises including all stations and the police gym because former Yuendumu officer-in-charge Julie Frost told the top brass she would be “triggered” if she ran into him.

He has since gone on stress leave after being reinstated to the force last month.

The NTPA survey’s preliminary results also showed that 79.4 per cent of police surveyed said morale was “low or very low”.

Another 92.6 per cent said they do not believe there are enough police in the NT to do what is asked of them and 87.9 per cent said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the Labor Government’s pay freeze offer.

Those issues informed the focus of speeches by Mr McCue and Ms Worden to union delegates at the annual conference Friday morning, with Mr McCue calling for “change” in the force and Ms Worden pledging to address the other issues.

Ms Worden said she understood police were not happy with the proposed pay freeze but said that it was “government policy” and negotiations were continuing.

She also committed to working with the union in the coming weeks to review all the findings of the survey, including the officers’ written comments, and addressing the other issues such as disciplinary matters, health and well-being, low morale and what she called “structural reforms” around those issues.

“I have indicated today to the membership that changes are underway,” she said.

“I can give them my 100 per cent full commitment that a lot of those changes are already underway. I’ve indicated that they will see those changes on the ground over the coming months.”

She said Mr Chalker has the “government’s full support”. However, Labor backbencher Mark Turner last week called for an inquiry into police and said Mr Chalker’s position was untenable.

When asked by the NT Independent at the press conference if Ms Worden had told Mr Chalker to improve his performance, she replied that “we have very robust regular meetings, where we discuss all of the matters and the concerns that have been brought up by the NTPA and we find solutions and ways to work forward”.

Ms Worden also said it was “extraordinary that you would have an organization where the membership get a say on who their leader is”.

“Matters of hiring and firing of CEOs are a matter for government, not for the membership themselves,” she said.

“That said, it’s really important that we have to understand the sentiment of our police officers and why they feel disengaged from the police executive is really important to understand.”

Mr McCue said in his speech that the last three years had been the “most turbulent” in the association’s history.

He said later that summaries of the comments made by officers in the survey would be distributed to members at some point.

He also said there were critical comments about his role, but nothing that he felt he had to take on board and improve.

Mr McCue said Mr Chalker and the top brass had committed to weekly meetings with the union to discuss all of the issues raised in the survey, however, it remains unclear how Mr Chalker intends to address the Constable Rolfe matter.

“Eighty per cent of [members] have no confidence in the commissioner as it stands,” Mr McCue said.

“He has to make some changes. It’s up to him to do it. He is the responsible person. And quite clearly if those changes don’t take place, of course his position can become untenable. We don’t want to see this. We don’t want to see this level of dissatisfaction with our police commissioner, but quite clearly our members have had enough and this is what they wanted to achieve and get that message out there and they have it loud and clear.”

Mr Chalker told media on Thursday he would not be resigning. It was the first time he has made a media appearance in nearly 150 days and was only done after reporters chased him down the street.