The Northern Territory government is down to a majority of one after the resignation from the Country Liberal party by a MP instrumental in February’s failed coup against the chief minister.
The now independent MP, Robyn Lambley, also gave her support to Labor’s proposed independent commission against corruption but a motion to establish it was narrowly defeated.
Robyn Lambley announced her rejection of the ruling CLP party in parliament on Wednesday evening. Her-25 minute speech lay the blame squarely on chief minister, Adam Giles, who she said would be judged by history as “the worst ever” and had driven her out of office, and on a few unnamed colleagues who had made her life “hell”.
She warned other women contemplating entering politics in the CLP to “think carefully about your ability to endure what I can only describe as abuse”.
“There can be no doubt Adam Giles has driven me out of the party,” she said. “This is the chief minister whose modus operandi is to eliminate, execute, annihilate, assassinate and who, of course, has no use for the truth.”
Lambley has repeatedly spoken out against Giles but said her resignation had been prompted by a redrawing of electoral boundaries by the NT Electoral Commission, which proposed her Alice Springs seat of Araluen be scrapped entirely.
“The fact that the Top End gets an extra seat at the expense of Alice Springs says a lot about where we sit on the radar of our political leaders,” Lambley said.
The MP, who was sacked from the frontbench in February after the attempted spill, also took aim at the rest of the CLP government. “The wonderful opportunity I was presented with when I was elected to this parliament, and then when the Country Liberals took government, has been eroded by a lack of integrity within government,” she told parliament.
“Proper process is ignored and the failure to honour pledges made from opposition, such as establishing a crime and corruption watchdog – an independent commission against corruption – reflects poorly on us all.”
In March last year three other MPs quit the CLP and joined the Palmer United party. Alison Anderson and Larissa Lee later left the PUP to become independents, and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu returned in September to the CLP.
Lambley told ABC news on Wednesday night she did not believe anyone would follow in her footsteps because they would not want to be the ones who brought down the government.
Her resignation formed part of her support for a Labor’s proposed independent commission against corruption. She said “certain events” over the past six months had clearly demonstrated a need for an independent anti-corruption body.
In the past six months NT government and authoritative bodies have been embroiled in scandals including the resignation of the former police commissioner after allegations he had sought to interfere in a fraud case, alleged connections between the government and an alleged slush fund now under police investigation, lengthy inquiries and court battles over findings that the former opposition leader had acted with bias in gifting a rent-free lease to Unions NT, and questions about government travel entitlements.
An ombudsman’s report into the case of the former police commissioner recommended the establishment of a corruption watchdog.
“The objective and prejudiced determination made by a majority government and chief minister as to whether or not a matter of alleged corruption should or should not be investigated, that may or may not involve allegations against government ministers and staffers, is inadequate and far from independent,” Lambley said.
The motion to establish an anti-corruption body was defeated 12 votes to 12. The Speaker, CLP member Kezia Purick, did not vote.
Government ministers, including the attorney general, John Elferink, have repeatedly dismissed calls for an independent watchdog. Elferink has attempted to draw links between the high court findings against the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption’s investigation of the prosecutor Margaret Cunneen and concerns about “who polices the policeman”.
Giles said an estimated cost of $50m could be better spent and accused Labor of seeking to cut police numbers or close schools instead. He said there was already “good oversight” in the territory, including “the court of public opinion, which in the Northern Territory is quite often the pub”.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon Giles would not be drawn on whether he was confident he will lead the government to the next election, but he rejected the accusations of bullying made by Lambley.
“I’m not aware of any grounds to that,” he said.
He said suggestions he and treasurer Dave Tollner drove her out of government “weren’t fair.”
“I think anyone who knows me knows I operate on a level playing field and support everybody whether they be within parliament, within the community or within the rest of the nation,” he said.
He said the CLP did not have a problem with women.
