Andrew Bolt: Coalition supporters back Jacinta Price, Dutton should too

After Labor’s catastrophic loss in the NT, Peter Dutton would be wise to bring Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to the forefront.

Hear that explosion in Darwin? Labor’s catastrophic loss in the Northern Territory election on Saturday will rock the Albanese government.

Anthony Albanese was already in danger of being a one-term Prime Minister, thanks to his government’s incompetence, ideological follies and cost of living crisis.

Now this. Labor lost government in the NT, as well as probably nine of its 14 seats.

The Country Liberal Party won probably 16 of the 25 seats with a massive swing of some 16 per cent.

Country Liberal Party leader Lia Finocchiaro arrives to cheers after her party's 2024 Northern Territory election win. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Normally you’d say “so what”? The NT is too different, and sends just two politicians to our House of Representatives in Canberra.

Both are Labor, by the way, and that’s the start of Albanese’s problems.

The next federal election looks very tight.

The most recent Newspoll shows Labor tied with the Coalition.

A single seat could be decisive.

So the NT result is ominous.

One of the Territory’s two federal seats, Lingiari, is held by Labor by just 51 per cent to 49 and looks sure to be lost.

The other, Solomon, is held by Labor’s Luke Gosling by a healthier 59 per cent to 41 – but now even that could go.

What’s more, the CLP wins were in suburban Darwin, and many election issues on Saturday would be familiar in other Australian cities: cost of living, crime rates, a sluggish economy and debt. Boy, what a debt: $11bn for just 233,000 Territorians.

Add this: Albanese was dragged into NT politics and proved ineffectual. He was shamed into trying to fix the crime spree devastating Alice Springs, and made little difference.

He also used the NT, especially its Garma Festival, as a backdrop for his disastrous campaign for the Voice, when Territorians knew an Aboriginal-only advisory parliament was a divisive distraction.

What will also alarm Labor is that few people saw this tsunami coming.

The “shy voter” syndrome tends to underestimate the Coalition’s vote, not Labor’s. Maybe polls are hiding what’s coming for Albanese, too.

Lia Finocchiaro, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Peter Dutton and Clinton Howe in Darwin to discuss crime in the NT. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

That said, Peter Dutton’s Coalition still has work to do to prove it deserves to replace Albanese’s government. There are still too many weak links in its shadow ministry.

So here’s one more thing the Coalition should take from the Territory: Nationals Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

Price was last December rated in one survey as the most popular Coalition politician in Canberra. To Coalition supporters, she’s a rock star, credited with winning the campaign against the racist Voice.

But she’s since been kept as spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians, now a political backwater. It’s like resting Toby Greene on the bench in the final five minutes of a tight grand final.

Those five minutes start now for Dutton. Bring on Price.