Labor proves again how secretive it really is, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

DESPITE their pledge to be “open and transparent” this government is proving it really is no better than the scandal plagued CLP circa 2012-16, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

The cocaine sex scandal plaguing the Gunner Government is just another example of how it has never lived up to its promise of being “open and transparent”

• Labor MLA Mark Turner’s cocaine indifference unmasked in new texts
• 'He has lost my trust’: Gunner kicks MLA out of caucus

THERE’S a gift that’s often given to new Labor MLAs and staff.

It’s a copy of Crocs in the Cabinet, the book Christopher Walsh and Ben Smee wrote about the previous CLP government.

Some cabinet ministers like to keep a copy on the shelves in their offices.

It’s all a bit of a laugh, you see. Check out how bad this mob were. You won’t believe the chapter on Nathan Barrett, the god-fearing family man who was caught sending an explicit video to a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

Sadly, the longer Labor has been in office, the more it seems this book has been used as a how-to manual, rather than a warning guide.

The latest sordid chapter played out this week and ended with the sacking from the Labor caucus of Blain MLA Mark Turner over his involvement in the party’s cocaine sex scandal.

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And while drugs and sex will always steal the headlines, there’s something more troubling about Labor’s record since it came to office in 2016, promising to bring new standards to government.

That promise was outlined in detail in a 37-page document called “Restoring Integrity to Government”.

It was full of pledges about openness, transparency and trust.

But on each of these points, the Government has failed to deliver.

Labor’s attempts to cover up the behaviour of Mr Turner and a senior staffer this week were comical.

There could be further ramifications, not because of the behaviour itself, but due to the tactics that were employed to try to hush it up.

So much for Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s pledge that “the resources of government are always employed in the public interest”.

But there are far more important issues this administration is covering up.

Despite its pledge that “Territorians have the right to access Government information” because “it belongs to all of us”, countless reports have been buried.

Often it’s not because they contain sensitive or commercially confidential information, but because they might make our decision makers look bad.

It began within a few months of Labor taking office when it released only the executive summary of the Hamburger Report into the NT’s correctional facilities.

Security concerns, the Government said, meant the rest of the report needed to stay private.

Yet when the entire report was leaked to the media, it contained few matters of security, but plenty of criticism of the former Labor Government’s $1.8 billion Holtze prison.

When a highly volatile detainee escaped from the secure mental health facility inside the grounds of the Alice Springs prison, stole a car and went on a 5km escapade running an unsuspecting couple off the road before rolling the vehicle himself, the Government managed to keep it quiet for nine months.

There were no statements, no police press releases, not a peep from the people who told us they believe “open, transparent and accountable Government is the best way to maximise the health and prosperity of the whole community”.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner has, time and time again, showed his government is not at all “open and transparent” like he promised it would be

When the incident was finally revealed in the media, the Chief Minister said he knew nothing about it, even though extensive details, including photographs, had been sent to his office.

Last year we used Freedom of Information to try to obtain a 118-page report the Government had commissioned into how best achieve its 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030. When the document was released, 116 of those 118 pages had been completely redacted.

All that remained was the front and back cover.

When we asked for a review of that decision, we were told there had been an error — the front and back cover should never have been released.

If Labor was serious when it said giving Territorians access to public information was “not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do”, then this must be the dumbest Government in Australian history.

And who could forget the report the Chief Minister commissioned into his own office? Perhaps this report might shed some light into whether a serious drug problem exists on the fifth floor? But we’ll never know.

When ABC journalist Jano Gibson applied for the report under Freedom of Information he was told it could not be made available, because it had been “thrown in the bin”.

As for the journalist who co-wrote Crocs in the Cabinet, well, he’s been banned from attending Government press conferences.

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Rather than being accountable, accountability is being avoided at all costs.

In the wake of the cocaine sex scandal, the Government has a vacancy in its fifth-floor offices.

When that new staff member arrives it might pay to hand them a copy of Labor’s Restoring Integrity in Government manifesto, rather than a book about an outfit that looks increasingly like itself.