Matt Cunningham opinion: Fyles 2.0 could herald cabinet reshuffle ahead of next year’s election

Twelve months out from an election, a refreshed Chief Minister should consider whether there are any MLAs on the backbench who might deserve an opportunity, writes Matt Cunningham.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles ‘might want to reconsider is a cabinet reshuffle’, writes Matt Cunningham. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Natasha Fyles hit the reset button on her chief ministership with her speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday.

For more than 12 months the Fyles government has been drifting along with little direction. Crime has been rising, the economy stalling and the government has been seemingly stuck in a state of delusion, wandering along like Nero while the fire around it intensifies.

Fyles put a stake in the ground on Tuesday, sending a message that her government was focused on creating jobs, even if that meant incurring the wrath of angry activists.

She was helped by a press pack so firmly ensconced in the Canberra bubble it failed to interrogate her on any of the issues most concerning Territorians.

Journalists who had clearly been briefed — but not particularly well — asked plenty of questions about fracking and Middle Arm but none about the rising crime and social dysfunction playing out on streets across the NT.

Ms Fyles’ speech spoke of the importance of the resources industry — including gas — to the Territory’s economy.

Given the tone, an obvious question might have been why the NT Labor government had slapped a two-year moratorium on the onshore gas industry to conduct an inquiry into an issue that had been inquired into many times before — but it was never asked.

The Chief Minister’s speech will have been welcomed by the business community and by her MLAs in seats like Port Darwin and Fong Lim who must have been wondering if they were walking slowly towards a self-inflicted defeat.

The only seat Ms Fyles might have put at risk on Tuesday is her own, Nightcliff, where she might leak votes to the Country Liberal Party on crime and the Greens on the environment.

It might be hard to imagine given her personal popularity in Nightcliff and her dominance of that seat for a decade but some Labor insiders are worried a CLP-Greens preference deal could unseat the Chief Minister next August.

To this end, Ms Fyles’ speech stands as an act of self-sacrifice, giving her colleagues a better chance of holding their seats, even if it might have meant risking her own.

Natasha Fyles used her speech at the National Press Club to hit out at ‘Teals and trolls’ campaigning against her government’s gas and petrochemical projects. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

While she’s in makeover mode there are a few other things she might want to reconsider.

The government has held on steadfastly to some ineffective policies even when presented with overwhelming evidence that they have not worked.

The most glaring example of this was the decision to allow alcohol to return to Aboriginal town camps.

Rates of domestic violence and alcohol-related hospital admissions immediately shot up and remained at high levels until the alcohol bans were reinstated at the insistence of the Prime Minister in January.

The government has extended strict restrictions on takeaway alcohol sales in Alice Springs indefinitely but says it remains committed to returning alcohol to town camps and smaller communities if they develop an alcohol management plan and there is majority support among community members.

When pushed about this last month, Attorney-General Chansey Paech said: “Let’s just be very clear, I’m an Aboriginal person myself and we’re not homogenous. We’ll make evidence-based approaches and we’ll work with the community on what mechanisms and what strategies can be put in place.”

Plenty of Aboriginal women (Labor MP Marion Scrymgour, CLP Senator Jacinta Price and Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory chief executive Donna Ah Chee have all previously spoken out about the issue) would appear to disagree that this is a good idea. As does one of the architects of the Voice to Parliament, Noel Pearson.

“It’s a constant battle because some of the community leadership is not good,” he said last month as he questioned why a Labor government would even consider a return of alcohol. “They don’t face up to the fact that grog is killing their people.”

Labor might not have any seats to lose in Alice Springs but its refusal to walk away from this policy sends a message to the rest of the Territory that it’s willing to put ideology ahead of common sense, even if it risks the wellbeing of women and children.

The final thing Ms Fyles might want to reconsider is a cabinet reshuffle.

Labor has made few changes to its cabinet over the past seven years as it has tried to differentiate itself from the chaos of the last CLP administration.

But its quest for stability is now allowing some burnt-out and underperforming ministers to continue to the detriment of the government and Territorians.

Twelve months out from an election, there are a couple of MLAs on the backbench who might deserve an opportunity.