The Northern Territory will be “a second class citizen” with “second class status” until it gains full statehood, its chief minister, Adam Giles, has said.
Speaking at the Council of Australian Governments (Coag) meeting on Thursday, Giles said he was “very happy to have support from colleagues at the table” after the other federal, state and territory leaders gave muted backing for the NT’s bid for statehood.
But a constitutional law expert said the NT government had not prioritised statehood during its term of government and might have lost momentum to grant its citizens equal rights with the rest of Australia.
Wednesday’s communique said simply that leaders “supported the Northern Territory chief minister’s resolve” for Northern Territory statehood by July 2018. The date was suggested by Giles last month to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Territory’s self governance.
The federal treasurer, Joe Hockey, was cool on the idea when questioned on Thursday, saying, “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,” he told media. “They chose not to go down that path. So, we’ll leave it at that, thanks very much.”
Federal parliament can grant statehood to the Northern Territory by passing legislation in a “very straightforward legal process” according to the constitutional law expert Prof George Williams. All that was needed for the commonwealth to act was for the NT to show that territorians supported both statehood and a new constitution.
Williams said the NT had already begun the process in previous governments but a referendum in 1998 “narrowly failed” and it had dropped as a priority under the current CLP government.
“The legislation is there, it’s gone through, and a lot of the groundwork was done. A lot of momentum was built up but then it hasn’t been pursued,” he said. “Perhaps this new event will trigger it moving up the priorities. Certainly it will need to – three years is a short time to do this in.”
The CLP government in the Territory has been mired in political infighting and scandals during its term, and the opposition leader, who also supports statehood, said this meant the territory had “never been weaker on the national stage”.
“I have never accepted and will never that because I was born in the territory and choose to live in the territory I should have fewer rights than other Australians,” Michael Gunner told Guardian Australia.
“But, we need to understand why territorians voted no to statehood last time and make sure we address those concerns.”
Gunner said territorians had struggled to accept the NT had the ability to be on an equal footing and engage as a full partner in the commonwealth, and that it had the “maturity” for full statehood.
“Nothing the CLP has done over the last three years would have changed the minds of territorians.”
Statehood would grant territory residents equal political rights in several significant areas.
“At the moment the commonwealth can intervene whenever and wherever it wishes, but if it was a state that would not be possible,” said Williams, noting how the federal minister Kevin Andrews introduced legislation to overturn the NT’s legalisation of euthanasia in 1996.
Territorians also get just half a vote in national referendums, as they are included only in the national count and not in the second count within states.
“That’s a big issue, particularly if we’re going to recognise Aboriginal people in the constitution, because the NT has the biggest percentage population of Aboriginal people but it will get the least vote. Aboriginal people there will only get half a vote,” Williams said.
“Also a number of rights in the constitution, for example not to be discriminated against based on residence. That only protects you if you live in the states.”
The federal constitution guarantees 12 senators for original states, but the final number for a new state would be subject to negotiation between the territory and commonwealth.
If statehood was achieved, the new name would be decided by the commonwealth but presumably would follow the wishes of territorians, Williams said.
“That’s one of the debates people in the territory need to have, because it is not just about increasing the legal rights and representation of the territory, but also a sense of identity and how that should be represented into the future.
“Previously territorians indicated they quite liked the name Northern Territory, so they might keep it.”
At Thursday’s Coag press conference Tony Abbott mistakenly suggested the Australian flag could be changed to reflect the Northern Territory’s evolution to a state, by adding a seventh point to the six-point star. The star on the flag already has seven points.
“[If] the Commonwealth star was to be a seven-pointed star rather than a six-pointed star, that’s hardly a massive change,” Abbott said.
The Northern Territory flag has included its own bid for statehood since its creation in 1978, when the NT was granted self-governance.
Victorian artist Robert Ingpen included seven petals on the sturt desert rose when he designed the flag – one for each of the six current states and one, sitting at the top, representing the north as the inevitable seventh.
The sly addition was a message to the territory’s people and government to aim higher than self governance.
“It was there hoping the time will come when statehood would be obvious for the northern part of Australia and it’s looking closer now,” Ingpen said.
