MLA Jeff Collins claims chief minister promised him the attorney-general’s job

FORMER Labor MLA, Jeff Collins has accused Chief Minister Michael Gunner of reneging on a commitment to make him attorney-general if Labor won the 2016 election.

MLA Jeff Collins quit the Labor Party after he got kicked out of Cabinet. Now he has a lot to say about his former party. Picture: Justin Kennedy

JEFF Collins has accused Chief Minister Michael Gunner of reneging on a commitment to make him attorney-general if Labor won the 2016 election.

But Mr Gunner has rejected these claims, describing them as a “categorical lie”.

“Territorians have made it clear they want us to focus on the issues that matter to them — and I am doing just that,” Mr Gunner said.

“It’s clear that Jeff is determined to keep talking about himself.”

Mr Collins said he had two meetings before the election — one with Mr Gunner’s chief-of-staff Alf Leonardi and another with Mr Gunner and Mr Leonardi — where they suggested he would be given the cabinet position if Labor formed Government.

“It was an implied promise rather than an explicit promise,” Mr Collins said.

“He did not say the words ‘we promise you will be the attorney-general’. The conversation went this way. They said ‘what are you interested in?’ and I said ‘I’m interested in being the attorney-general, I’m interested in legal reform.”

Mr Collins said he was told he would need to take on another portfolio as well as attorney-general.

“I said ‘I don’t care what else you give me I’m happy to do whatever you think I can do but I’m interested in attorney-general’.

Asked if he was sold into running for parliament on a lie, Mr Collins said: “I think that’s absolutely true, that’s absolutely the case.”

Mr Collins said Mr Gunner and Mr Leonardi had also argued the Labor team was “limited in our experience” and were “a lot of school teachers and social workers”.

“I think it was saleable for them that I was an electrician and a firefighter and a lawyer and had experience outside of being a government adviser,” he said. But he said he suspected he was overlooked for the role because of his outspoken support for abolishing mandatory sentencing laws.