Territory Alliance announce Dale McIver as election candidate for Braitling

HIGH-PROFILE tourism leader and local businesswoman Dale McIver has joined the battle for the seat of Braitling at the upcoming election after being selected as the Territory Alliance candidate.

Territory Alliance Braitling candidate Dale McIver, centre, with party deputy leader Robyn Lambley and leader Terry Mills. Picture: Supplied

HIGH-PROFILE tourism leader and local businesswoman Dale McIver has joined the battle for the seat of Braitling at the upcoming election after being selected as the Territory Alliance candidate.

Ms McIver, who chairs Tourism Central Australia, will go up against Territory Families Minister Dale Wakefield, independent MLA Scott McConnell and CLP candidate Joshua Burgoyne in the hotly contested seat.

Ms McIver, who has operated her own events business for four years, said she had joined Territory Alliance after years of being approached to join politics because of its grassroots approach

Dale McIver will be running for the seat of Braitling at the upcoming Territory election. Picture: Supplied

“There’s a lot of things I’ve seen in my position as chairperson of Tourism Central Australia over the last few years that I think that could do with some genuine change with that grassroots community input,” she said.

“One of the things we will be looking to do as a party when we get in will be to really progress the national Aboriginal art gallery and give tourism and the town of Alice Springs an economic future.”

Territory Families Minister Dale Wakefield currently holds the seat of Braitling, which she won on a thin margin by 27 votes at the 2016 election.

Ms McIver said it would be interesting to campaign in the midst of coronavirus restrictions.

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“It certainly gives us a whole new way of campaigning, we don’t have the usual public gatherings that we would have and I guess that it gives us a new opportunity to do things differently,” she said.

“Hopefully in the next few weeks we will see some of those restrictions lifted and we can get out to shopping centres and a few more public places to do that.”

Ms McIver did not announce any specific policies but said she will engage in further discussions with her constituents and colleagues.

Territory Alliance leader Terry Mills said he would like to see new leadership following the challenges stemming from coronavirus.

“That’s why Territory Alliance has just recently announced a recovery plan that involves key stakeholders led by the government that is inclusive,” he said.

“We need voices here from Central Australia to help lead this community at this time.”

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“The decision (on the Aboriginal art gallery site) will be made in the first 100 days in full view of the community.”

“It’s disturbing to see a community with such great potential unable to make a decisions about where the art gallery goes. To me that’s symptomatic of a change that must occur.”