The Northern Territory opposition leader, Delia Lawrie, may face a leadership spill on Wednesday after a fellow MLA confirmed he had been approached to challenge.
Lawrie has been under pressure after a supreme court finding that she and her lawyers sought to deliberately undermine an inquiry which later found that she had acted unfairly and with bias in granting a rent-free lease of a historic Darwin site to Unions NT in 2012.
Lawrie is the only Labor MP to have spoken publicly about the scandal since, and only Natasha Fyles has confirmed her support for Lawrie as leader, the NT News says.
The Labor caucus is due to meet on Wednesday morning.
The member for Johnston, Ken Vowles, confirmed on Tuesday he had been approached by colleagues and told Mix 104.9 radio he would put his hand up “if my caucus colleagues believe I can lead the party”.
Vowles denied the move was forced. “It goes back to nobody is bigger than the party and the party should always come first,” he said.
“We need people to have confidence in us.”
In a statement to Guardian Australia, Lawrie said: “It’s always open for anyone to put their hand up for leadership, and unlike the CLP our great Labor party has a democratic process.”
Kon Vatskalis, a former long-serving Labor member, said on Tuesday he had written to Lawrie asking her to resign “for the good of the party”. If Lawrie chose to fight a challenge it could split the party, he told ABC.
Amid the leadership speculation a fellow Labor MP, Michael Gunner, emerged as a frontrunner candidate. Vowles told Mix any decision by Gunner to also challenge was a matter for him, but the member for Fannie Bay had shown “leadership qualities”. Gunner and Vowles were the only two Labor parliamentarians in Darwin on Tuesday; the other six were at a meeting on Grooyte Eylandt, AAP says.
Gunner did not return calls for comment.
Should there be a successful spill motion and more than one candidate stands, under NT Labor party rules a full plebiscite must be held. Rank-and-file Labor members will vote in a process which would take about a month, Kent Rowe, secretary of the NT Labor party, told Guardian Australia.
Vowles is the opposition spokesman for Indigenous policy, regional economic development, resources, mines and energy, primary industries, fisheries, and transport.
Gunner is the opposition whip and holds the shadow portfolios of lands and planning, infrastructure, public and affordable housing, Asian relations, and trade.
The Northern Territory has seen several leadership spills in recent years within the governing Country Liberal party. Most recently, the chief minister, Adam Giles, survived a farcical attempted coup in February by the now deputy chief minister, Willem Westra Van Holthe, after Giles refused to resign. The challenge sparked the 14th reshuffle since the CLP won the 2012 election.
