With an election on the horizon, corruption findings ‘might not be the end’ for Kezia Purick

SHE may be embroiled in the NT’s biggest political scandal of the year, but Speaker Kezia Purick still stands a chance of winning back her seat in August.

Speaker Kezia Purick.

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SHE may be embroiled in the NT’s biggest political scandal of the year but Speaker Kezia Purick still stands a chance of winning back her seat in August.

The Independent MLA has managed to hold onto her seat of Goyder with a strong majority since 2012.

It is the third safest seat in the NT.

Ms Purick was first elected to the NT Legislative Assembly as a Country Liberals member in 2008 but quit the party in 2015 to serve as an independent.

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Despite the explosive allegations of corruption ICAC has made against her, NT political analyst Ken Parish believes the disgraced MLA could still “limp across the line” to keep her seat in the August election.

“She’ll cop a blow at the polls for this scandal but it might not be the end for Kezia,” he said.

“She’s always had a very strong majority in her seat and having incumbency in a small seat like Goyder will work in her favour because she’d know everybody and everybody knows her.

“I don’t think the candidates opposing her are very well known either.”

CLP candidate for Goyder Phil Battye.

The Country Liberals have nominated Phil Battye to run against Ms Purick in August. But he also found himself in controversy recently when it was revealed he had been previously convicted for not lodging a tax return for 10 years.

Labor and Territory Alliance have not yet announced candidates for Goyder.

Ms Purick is expected to be forced out of her role as Speaker today but the responses sent by her lawyers yesterday suggests she may want to fight it.

“At worst, the conduct under investigation may be regarded as the pursuit of a political opportunity (point scoring),” the response reads.

Mr Parish, a Territory Alliance member, said he did not expect Alliance to have another run at Opposition status before the election, even if Ms Purick was removed as Speaker.

“It’s too late in the game to push for Opposition statues now, they are more likely to focus on the upcoming election,” he said.

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He also doesn’t expect the Speaker’s political scandal will have much blowback on either Labor, Territory Alliance or CLP at the upcoming election.

“I don’t know if it will rebound on Gunner either because they set up ICAC and he asked her to resign,” Mr Parish said.