CLP’s fate as official Opposition lies in Speaker Kezia Purick’s hands

SPEAKER  Kezia Purick will decide who holds Opposition status in the NT, should independents Terry Mills and Robyn Lambley be successful in their bid to form a second conservative party

Speaker Kezia Purick could have to decide who holds Opposition status in the NT. Picture: Helen Orr

SPEAKER  Kezia Purick will decide who holds Opposition status in the NT, should independents Terry Mills and Robyn Lambley be successful in their bid to form a second conservative party.

That’s according to a response to Ms Lambley from Chief Minister Michael Gunner, based on legal advice from the Territory’s top lawyer.

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But it’s a responsibility Ms Purick doesn’t want.

Deciding which party would form Opposition would undermine her impartiality, she said.

Should Ms Lambley and Mr Mills challenge the two-member CLP for Opposition status, she would follow a precedent set in the ACT and let the assembly vote on which party would take the position, Ms Purick said.

Mr Mills and Ms Lambley – who previously served as chief and deputy chief minister, respectively, of the former Country Liberal Party government – want to form a branch of the Nationals party in the NT from the CLP.

If Ms Lambley and Mr Mills formed a coalition with a third member, the new entity would automatically assume Opposition – and the resources that come with it.

The duo tried to assert themselves in Question Time on Tuesday with an attempted censure motion, but with five pieces of legislation to ram through in three days, debate was denied by the Government.

CLP Leader Gary Higgins said he was unconcerned by the threat to the CLP’s Opposition status.