Barkly MLA Gerry McCarthy to retire at 2020 NT election, Labor to announce new candidate soon

IN a shock, a long-serving Northern Territory government minister has announced he will retire at the upcoming election

Minister for Housing and Community Development Gerry McCarthy speaks to media about the town camp review outside Parliament House in 2018.

LONG-SERVING NT government minister Gerry McCarthy has made the shock decision to retire, leaving the Labor Party to pick a new candidate for his seat of Barkly, 100 days before the election.

Mr McCarthy, first elected in 2008, confirmed he was retiring at this election though did not reveal why.

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It is understood the Labor Party will endorse a new candidate this week.

Mr McCarthy, who will be 62 in June, has lived in Tennant Creek for about 40 years and worked as a teacher in remote areas including Borroloola and Tennant Creek prior to politics.

Labor MLA Gerry McCarthy stands for the National Anthem during the first sitting of the 2019 Parliamentary year. Picture: Justin Kennedy

He took on the ministerial portfolios of transport and correctional services just six months after being elected, and was one of eight Labor MLAs who managed to hold on to their seats at the 2012 election.

Mr McCarthy’s lasting legacy will likely be his impact on remote area housing, including the $1.1 billion program in the bush that led to about 1800 homes being built or upgraded.

As of last year, $55 million worth of contracts go to Aboriginal Business Enterprises.

“It’s about offering training and creating jobs and long-term economic prosperity for Aboriginal people in their own communities,” he said at the time.

A picture of Dawn and Gerry McCarthy from 2009, taken by then-journalist Jasmin Afionos for the Tennant and District Times.

The 2014 Stella Maris Inquiry found that in his first term, Mr McCarthy acted without “accountability, responsibility or with proper consideration” by granting Unions NT a Crown lease over the historic site overlooking Darwin Harbour.

In 2017 Mr McCarthy, as local government minister, sacked the entire scandal-mired Palmerston City Council.