Michael Gunner’s chief ministership is under threat once again after damaging private communications have been leaked to the media
MICHAEL Gunner’s chief ministership is hanging by a very thin thread. It may now be untenable.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
MICHAEL Gunner’s chief ministership is hanging by a very thin thread.
It may now be untenable.
The leaking of private correspondence between backbench Labor MLAs has plunged the Gunner Government into chaos again.
The correspondence proves the deep division within the Labor team and comes only weeks after it admonished Jeff Collins, Scott McConnell and Ken Vowles from the Caucus.
McConnell and Collins have since left the Labor party and are now independents.
Vowles, a former Cabinet minister, has remained with Labor, hoping for a return to Cabinet.
Now we have the shock revelations that two more backbenchers, Sandra Nelson and Chansey Paech, have been throwing bombs behind the scenes at their own government.
Nelson has now confirmed she won’t contest the next election in the highly marginal seat of Katherine.
RELATED STORIES
• THE CLP can win the next election: This is how
• GOVT in crisis as three ministers sacked over criticism
• KEN Vowles sacking shocks Northern Territory business
• IF THIS Government was a business we’d be bankrupt’: Vowles’ blistering email
• SCOTT McConnell resigns from NT Labor Party
• LABOR Party broke constitution kicking MLAs out of caucus
Nelson and Paech’s views echo that of Vowles, McConnell’s and Collins’ that the Gunner Government is run like a dictatorship and backbenchers are kept out of the loop.
Gunner’s government was elected on a platform of openness and transparency.
It appears Gunner and his Cabinet team have failed to live this mantra with their own members, let alone the people of the Territory.
Gunner has to take the blame. He’s the leader.
Territory Labor is now on fire for all the wrong reasons.
The house is burning down and the fire is out of control.
Gunner and his Cabinet will start spinning lines that this is only the rumblings of a few backbenchers but it’s far more than that.
This will divide the party and its members right across the Territory.
It’s gobsmacking that 17 months out from an election, the Gunner Government finds itself in a similar perilous state as the former chaotic Giles Government at the same time.
From an enormous majority of 18 members, Labor is already down to 16 with three others — Vowles, Nelson and Paech — clearly in peril.
• NT NEWS subscription special offer: $1 for first 28 days
If those three go, it takes Labor down to 13 members in a 25-seat parliament.
All of a sudden, an election loss in 2020 looks increasingly likely.
Cunningham: Sense must prevail to prevent an avoidable death
It’s sensible if an Aboriginal child must be removed from their parents, they be placed with a family member or another Indigenous family. But adhering to this principle at the expense of the child’s welfare, as has happened in the past, is madness.
Penbo: Big worry for Albo in the most Aussie photo ever
Who do you think the people in this viral Australia Day picture will be casting their vote for, writes David Penberthy.