‘I would never lie’: Michael Gunner addresses Labor message scandal

CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has said he ‘would never lie’ as he battles to mitigate the fallout from the embarrassing leak of private conversations between four current and former Labor MLAs

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner is battling to mitigate the fallout from the embarrassing leak of private conversations between four current and former Labor MLAs

CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has said he “would never lie” as he battles to mitigate the fallout from the embarrassing leak of private conversations between four current and former Labor MLAs.

In one of the messages, backbencher Chansey Paech said he was “sick of being lied to in caucus” on the state of the Territory’s economy.

Mr Gunner said Mr Paech had apologised for his remarks.

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“I would never lie in caucus or in public. I’ve always been very upfront,” he said.

Mr Paech also said it was “gutless” of Mr Gunner to have others call around to shore up numbers to support his leadership.

But Mr Gunner on Thursday denied the numbers were done on his behalf.

The number of Labor MLAs in Parliament has dwindled from 18 to 16 after Jeff Collins and Scott McConnell resigned from the party after they were sacked from caucus for dissent. Former minister Ken Vowles remains in limbo as a Labor member exiled from the party room.

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When asked if he considered himself a good leader, given five of his 17 colleagues had expressed deep misgivings about his abilities, Mr Gunner said he did his best.

“I don’t sit at home giving myself marks out of 10, I simply do the best I can every day,” he said.

Mr Collins has owned up to circulating the conversation to a number of people and on Thursday accused his former party of colluding with the Opposition to kill off his pet project as an act of revenge.

Opposition Leader Gary Higgins moved to fold Mr Collins’ parliamentary inquiry into drugs and other addictive behaviours late on Wednesday evening.

Mr Collins was not in the chamber at the time.

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But that accusation was dismissed by both Mr Higgins and Nastasha Fyles, who denied they had colluded to kill off the committee, which has spent 10 months exploring how to mitigate harm associated with addiction.

Dozens of community members and experts participated in the inquiry.

An interim report, which made no recommendations, was tabled in Parliament this month.

Ms Fyles said the report “will not be thrown in the bin”.

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“Potential future assemblies” could use the document, she said.