The CLP has picked Territory cop Lisa Bayliss to contest Solomon
The CLP has chosen a Northern Territory police officer to take on Labor in Solomon. Read who it is.
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Lisa Bayliss, a serving Northern Territory police officer, will contest Solomon for the CLP at the next federal election.
Mrs Bayliss was preselected on Sunday at the party’s central council and annual conference at Rydges Hotel in Palmerston.
She will take on Labor’s three-term sitting member Luke Gosling, who has indicated he will again contest the next federal election, due by May 2025.
Senior vice president of the Northern Territory Police Association, Mrs Bayliss made headlines earlier this year when a media release critical of Commissioner Michael Murphy’s failure to consult with members before apologising for police racism led him to quit the association.
A self-described conservative, she said cost-of-living pressures and the economy would be two key campaign issues she would use to try and wrest the seat back to the CLP for the first time since 2016.
She committed to championing economic growth and spoke out against Canberra’s “interference” in the Beetaloo Basin gas project.
“I want to see investment unlocked in the Northern Territory, particularly around the Beetaloo Basin, and we need to make sure we have a federal government that will make that happen,” she said.
“The science around Beetaloo was considered in the Pepper report and then we’ve just had (Federal Environment Minister) Tanya Plibersek announcing a water trigger review. At a time when we need to be developing the Territory’s resources, the federal Labor government is running interference.
“This makes investors nervous and ignores the comprehensive details contained in the Pepper inquiry report. We never hear a word from Luke Gosling when the government threatens the security of the gas industry.”
Earlier this month, Ms Plibersek referred the Beetaloo Basin project to the Independent Expert Scientific Committee for an eleventh-hour review.
Mrs Baylis first joined the NT police force as a constable in 1994, receiving detective designation in 2005 before being promoted to sergeant in 2018.
She has a postgraduate in industrial relations and a bachelor of police investigations from Charles Sturt University.
She has been an executive member of the NT Police Association since 2010 and was appointed association senior vice president in 2018.
In other preselection news from central council, Jacinta Price will recontest the senate for the CLP and preselection for the Lingiari electorate has been deferred and will be considered by the party’s management committee in coming weeks.
CLP president Shane Stone said 400 votes could decide the Lingiari electorate and predicted Luke Gosling would lose Solomon, saying ‘his goose is cooked’.
“Lisa Bayliss is an outstanding candidate and she represents much of what the new CLP is about,” he said.
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