Hayley Sorensen: Quick to remind us of the CLP’s faults, Gunner has forgotten the lessons from its failings

AT his election night wake in Alice Springs in August 2016, former chief minister Giles gave a frank evaluation of what had gone so wrong for his government

Chief Minister Michael Gunner (left) should have heeded the advice of his predecessor Adam Giles, political reporter Hayley Sorensen says

AT his election night wake in Alice Springs in August 2016, former chief minister Adam Giles gave a frank evaluation of what had gone so wrong for his government.

“Tonight’s result is a lesson in disunity is death in politics,” he said. “It’s a result of looking after one’s self, rather than thinking about the people.”

The following day, sitting in his backyard in Ludmilla, Giles’s successor Michael Gunner reflected on the lessons he had learnt from watching the CLP implode as its once strong majority was whittled down by scandal and personal conflicts.

To never lose sight of the fact he and his team were public servants, he said, and not to let personalities derail governance (plus something about telling his members there was a public toilet across the road should they feel the need to film salacious videos to send to women who weren’t their wives).

Giles wasn’t the only one to offer a road map to the new chief minister to avoid his mistakes. In the wash-up from the electoral bloodbath, barrels of ink were expended by journalists, pundits and the ghosts of politicians past eager to pick over the carcass of the CLP government.

Labor got to power on a small target strategy centred around emphasising the CLP’s shortcomings – and there were plenty of them – without having to explain much of its own merits. It’s been said many times the NT didn’t vote in Labor, they voted out the CLP – the swing against the CLP was far greater than the swing towards Labor.

It’s a strategy that worked so well for it, Labor is clinging to it even now in the second half of the term.

There have been few opportunities Gunner has passed up to reference the “chaotic CLP”. It comes up at every press conference, in speeches, in announcements.

Even now, having plunged the Territory to its eyeballs in debt, Gunner and his ministers continue to play the blame game and point the finger to four short years of the CLP.

In his opinion piece published in last week’s Sunday Territorian, Gunner referenced the CLP five times.

We get it; the CLP was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad government.

But while Labor is quick to remind us of the CLP’s failings, it has forgotten or ignored the lessons from those failings.

Personal conflicts and self interest have again been allowed to get in the way of governance.

This coming week is the first parliamentary sittings since Gunner Marie Kondo-ed the rebel trio of Ken Vowles, Scott McConnell and Jeff Collins from caucus.

And while Gunner and his staff are keen to frame Vowles and company as disagreeable rogues whose insubordination could no longer be tolerated, as leader, Gunner should take the biggest portion of the blame for their indiscipline.

The fact the ill-feeling was allowed to fester among discontented MLAs for so long to the point it boiled over as it did is an indictment of his leadership capabilities.

Much of the current dramas probably would have been avoided with a beer and a frank conversation but by shutting down divergent views and refusing to engage, he has dug himself a hole of discord.

This Government is as self-interested as Giles’s before it.

The prize isn’t the chief ministership or a dragon fruit farm for individuals anymore; this time it’s simply re-election to another term of government for as many as can cling on.

Gunner and his advisers are convinced stability will help them stay for a second term.

He said as much last month when he announced Paul Kirby as Vowles’s Cabinet replacement. With two reshuffles, his was the most stable ministry since Marshall Perron in the 90s, he said, as justification for keeping his “chaotic CLP” line in the rotation of slogans. But keeping the same people in the same jobs for the sake of stability doesn’t mean good governance.

That attitude has allowed underperforming ministers to continue in their roles, and it’s Territorians who suffer for it.

Gunner would do well to remember Giles’s advice.

Hayley Sorensen is NT News political reporter and Sunday Territorian columnist