Lambley says Chief ‘in cahoots’ with his mum — ‘get rid of her’

INDEPENDENT MLA Robyn Lambley has accused Chief Minister Michael Gunner of running a protection racket for speaker Kezia Purick “in cahoots” with his mother

Independent MLA Robyn Lambley has accused Chief Minister Michael Gunner of running a protection racket for speaker Kezia Purick “in cahoots” with his mother who works for her. Picture: KERI MEGELUS

INDEPENDENT MLA Robyn Lambley has accused Chief Minister Michael Gunner of running a protection racket for speaker Kezia Purick “in cahoots” with his mother who works for her.

Ms Purick avoided being removed from her role after the Labor caucus voted to keep her on following a move by one of her staffers to frustrate the plans of Ms Lambley and fellow independent Terry Mills to form a new political party and wrestle opposition status from the Country Liberal Party.

The Gunner Government backed Ms Purick after it was revealed her staffer Martine Smith, contacted a Queensland businessman who had previously registered the name of Ms Lambley and Mr Mills’ planned party, the North Australia Party, and suggested he object to the registration.

Ms Lambley said the “incestuous situation” was unconstitutional “nepotism” and called on Mr Gunner to “get rid of his mother”.

“The Chief Minister’s mother has a conflict of interest and the fact that those three are working so closely together is not in the best interests of Territorians and is not consistent with the constitution of Australia and the separation of powers that underpins how we operate our parliament and our government,” she said.

“Gunner has to stand up and try and sort this out.

“I think he needs to get rid of Martine Smith, he needs to get rid of his mother, transfer her off into education or another government department and he needs to try and convince us that the Speaker can be impartial from this day forward without all the impediments around her, if she is indeed capable of being impartial.

“I think the whole lot needs to be cleared out and possibly a new Speaker and new staff that have no conflicts or impediments to do the job properly.”

A spokesman for Mr Gunner said the issue of a conflict of interest involving his mother had never before been raised. “The Chief Minister’s mother has been secretary to multiple clerks, across multiple governments,” he said.

But Ms Lambley said while Mr Gunner’s mother Jane, who works as “executive secretary” in the office of the clerk, was “a lovely lady”, she should have been moved elsewhere when her son took the top job.

“To bring this up is not easy and I’m not doing it for any other reason than the fact that I don’t think the matter with Kezia was handled fairly and fully by the Chief Minister and I think the fact that it was all so personally and professionally tied up — I think that’s the reason why the whole matter was not fully investigated,” she said.

“I’m not saying she’s unprofessional but there is a conflict of interest there that has never been declared.”

Ms Lambley said she spoke out after receiving “confidential” correspondence from Ms Purick’s office via an email from Ms Gunner.