Mills tells candidates to ‘hold their heads high’ despite massive losses

THE “project” known as the Territory Alliance Party suffered a humiliating loss, with leader Terry Mills losing his own seat and any other candidate yet to pick up a seat

THE “project” known as the Territory Alliance Party suffered a humiliating loss, with leader Terry Mills losing his own seat and any other candidate yet to pick up a seat.

However, the mood at the party’s election function last night was optimistic, with Mr Mills telling all of his 21 candidates they should “hold their heads high” despite the disappointing result. “I feel that we have actually given birth to something,” he said of the party.

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“This party is less than 12 months old … I’ve said a number of times, this is a project about building our community.”

Mr Mills did not officially concede his loss, but had received just over half of his Labor counterpart Mark Turner’s votes at the close of counting last night. The CLP’s Matthew Kerle was closely following Labor and was expected to take a significant portion of second preference votes from Territory Alliance.

Mr Mills attributed the party’s flop to the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing to how well Territory Alliance candidate Steven Klose did in the Johnston by-election.

“The pandemic occurred immediately after that and it changed everything,” he said.

“A fledgling party couldn’t campaign. The public conversation changed.”

Another notable loss was for independent-turned-Territory Alliance candidate and member for Fong Lim, Jeff Collins, who lost his seat, likely to be picked up by Labor’s Mark Monaghan.

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Mr Collins, who was initially a Labor MLA before quitting to sit as an independent, said he had no regrets about joining what turned out to be an unpopular party.

“If I hadn’t have joined, I wouldn’t have run,” he said.

“Being a member of the Labor government was possibly the most frustrating and disappointing period of my working life. Territory Alliance did give me a new lease of life.”

Araluen candidate Robyn Lambley and Katherine candidate Melanie Usher remain in the election race.