NT parliament: Rainbow poster depicting Health Minister’s face plastered in toilet by Labor staffer

A staffer from Labor Opposition Leader Selena Uibo’s office has reportedly been banned from Parliament House, after allegedly hanging a rainbow poster depicting the Health Minister’s face in a toilet.

NT Opposition Leader Selena Uibo. Picture: Fia Walsh.

A staffer from Labor Opposition Leader Selena Uibo’s office is believed to have been banned from entering Parliament House while a probe into their alleged shenanigans in a men’s toilet is carried out.

This masthead understands the staffer was captured on CCTV cameras entering a lift near the fourth floor offices of the Opposition Leader, and then exiting onto the fifth floor where the offices of Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro are.

Ms Uibo’s staffer was then seen heading towards the fifth floor men’s toilets, where it is alleged they tried to pull off a covert political protest over the Territory Government’s order of the removal of Pride flags from Top End hospitals.

However a fifth floor staffer going about his business in a cubicle rumbled Ms Uibo’s staffer, who allegedly had plastered a poster of NT Health Minister Steve Edgington, superimposed over a rainbow, on the men’s toilet wall.

This poster was allegedly put on the wall of the 5th floor men's toilets in the NT Parliament House by a staffer from Opposition Leader Selina Uibo's office.

Swipe card records are understood to have confirmed Ms Uibo’s staffer’s fifth floor toilet movements at the time.

The Opposition Leader has confirmed it was a member of her staff responsible.

“There was an incident involving a staff member that did not meet the standards of behaviour I expect in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition,” Ms Uibo said.

“The staff member has acknowledged their behaviour on this occasion was inappropriate and apologised for their actions.

“They have been issued a written warning and reminded of appropriate workplace behaviour.”

Speaker of the parliament Robyn Lambley who has jurisdictional control over all who enter Parliament House and their conduct while there, would neither confirm or deny the men’s toilet protest act was being investigated.

“As the Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, my job is to ensure everyone entering Parliament House, whether they be members of staff, members of parliament, members of the public, they all adhere to strict codes of behaviour,” Ms Lambley said.

“It is a public expectation. Bad behaviour will not be tolerated.”

The matter is now the subject of a request from Mr Edgington for the Northern Territory Auditor-General Jara Dean to investigate.

Health Minister Steve Edgington has asked the Auditor-General to investigate the alleged incident. Picture: Pema Tamang PakhrinPicture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In a letter to the Auditor-General he asked Mr Dean to review a potential contravention of the provisions of the Public Information Act with regards to the distribution of politically motivated posters by “an employee of the Leader of the Opposition Selena Uibo”.

“The nature of the allegation is that on Thursday 30 January 2025, at approximately 10.50am, a member of Ms Uibo’s staff entered the men’s toilets on the fifth floor of Parliament House and proceeded to hang up a politically motivated poster in those toilets,” the letter read.

“It is alleged the poster is political material, made and distributed on Ministerial time.”

Originally published as NT parliament: Rainbow poster depicting Health Minister’s face plastered in toilet by Labor staffer