Joe Hockey should “go get a life” after his comments dismissing the Northern Territory’s bid for statehood, NT Speaker Kezia Purick has said.
A council of Australian governments (Coag) meeting in Sydney this week heard muted but unanimous support for the NT’s “resolve” to become a state by July 2018, and to give its residents equal rights and standing with the rest of the country.
But when asked for his thoughts on Thursday, the federal treasurer laughed and said: “Haven’t we heard this before?
“Look, I think we had a referendum not too long ago in the Northern Territory on that specific issue,” Hockey told the media. “They chose not to go down that path. So, we’ll leave it at that, thanks very much.”
Hockey was referring to the 1998 NT referendum in which 51.9% of territorians voted against statehood.
Purick, an outspoken Northern Territory MLA who quit the governing Country Liberal party (CLP) this week and who has previously ticked off federal minister Kevin Andrews in colourful terms, responded on Friday.
“Oh, go get a life, Joe Hockey, that referendum was many, many years ago,” Purick told the ABC.
“It’s a good 20 years ago, a lot has happened in the last 20 years and if he hasn’t been paying attention to the mood of the electorate in the Northern Territory, well, perhaps he needs to come up more regularly and listen to people.”
Purick offered her support for this week’s push for statehood by the NT chief minister, Adam Giles, but called for action beyond the talk. She cited poor communication and a lack of integrity when she resigned from the Giles-led CLP, which has been significantly damaged by infighting and scandals.
Purick said the question of what a northern state would be called had already been settled.
“Everyone quite categorically wanted it to be called the State of the Northern Territory,” she said, citing information from previous work by the statehood movement.
A change to statehood for the territory – which has a population of about 244,000 – would not automatically increase the number of senators representing it. Only original commonwealth states are guaranteed 12 upper house representatives in federal parliament, and any new state must negotiate an increase, according to constitutional law expert Professor George Williams.
Federal NT senator Nigel Scullion told Sky News on Thursday evening he thought enough time had passed to reconsider the issue of statehood, but said: “I don’t think Territorians want any more politicians.
“They don’t get up in the morning and say ‘darn, why don’t we have more senators here? That’s a real pain’,” he said.
“Territorians still remember the days that [former prime minister Paul] Keating referred to us as ‘that place you fly over on the way to Paris’, and we feel that we just simply want the same rights as a state as everyone else.”
Scullion, who is also the federal minister for Indigenous affairs, said concern about Indigenous land tenure in the Northern Territory – which is legislated by federal law – was not an issue.
“The Aboriginal Land Rights Act is a commonwealth act, and until such time as Indigenous Territorians decide they would like that managed in some other way, I suspect that’s the way it will remain.”
Scullion also indicated his support for the name State of the Northern Territory.
