Strong leadership has been lacking in the wake of scandal

WHEN Michael Gunner announced his first Cabinet 18 months ago it was celebrated as a triumph of diversity. MATT CUNNINGHAM writes

Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Michael Gunner.

WHEN Michael Gunner announced his first Cabinet 18 months ago it was celebrated as a triumph of diversity.

For the first time in our nation’s history an Australian government had more women in its Cabinet than men. It was a moment that was rightly celebrated. But it also masked some glaring omissions.

For the first time since 2003 there was no Aboriginal woman in the Northern Territory Government’s Cabinet.

Marion Scrymgour was the first and eventually rose to be deputy chief minister. She’s been followed into the ministries of various Governments, Labor and CLP, by Malarndirri McCarthy, Alison Anderson and Bess Price.

None of these women have gone about their business quietly. McCarthy, as a backbencher, crossed the floor over the McArthur River Mine, Scrymgour quit the party, only to rejoin when Anderson walked out a few months later.

Anderson joined the CLP, and with Price, led the bush revolt that saw Terry Mills sweep to power in 2012.

They then joined forces to help Adam Giles roll Mills as chief minister, before Anderson quit the CLP and became an independent, before signing up with the Palmer United Party. It might seem like these women can be a recipe for unrest, but what they’ve lacked in Government stability, they’ve more than made up for as passionate advocates for the most disadvantaged and disempowered people in the Northern Territory. Their decisions to walk out on their parties or help overthrow their leaders have almost always been driven by a frustration over Government policies in the bush.

Scymgour quit Labor over the Henderson Government’s decision to starve funding to more than 500 indigenous homelands communities. Anderson pulled the pin amid concerns the NT Government was creaming millions of dollars off a $672 million Aboriginal housing program.

And while Price always remained in the CLP tent, she bravely championed the cause of Aboriginal women and children, even if it meant she was vilified by left-leaning inner-city lawyers, one of whom said watching a man have sex with a horse “was less offensive than Bess Price”.

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The kind of advocacy delivered by Price, Anderson and Scrymgour has been sadly lacking in the Gunner Government’s response to the tragic recent events in Tennant Creek.

It took Dale Wakefield, the Minister for Families and the Minister for Women, four days after the story of the rape of a two-year-old child broke before she showed up in the town, and that visit only came after she was shamed on the front page of the NT News.

This week, as the issue of child sexual abuse featured on the front page of The Australian for three days in a row, Wakefield and Gunner remained silent.

Gunner has refused several requests to discuss the issue on Sky News, and when The Australian approached leaders from across the country for comment, he again offered none.

A few weeks ago Gunner screamed blue murder at the prospect of a productivity commission audit into how the Northern Territory Government spends its money.

It would be nice to see him show the same passion for the protection of our most vulnerable kids.

It’s been a pretty woeful response from a chief minister, made even worse by the fact he also holds the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio.

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This brings us to the other questionable decision around the make-up of this Cabinet.

Michael Gunner has just one indigenous MLA – Ken Vowles – on the front bench. And Gunner is the first non-Aboriginal MLA in a decade to hold the portfolio of Aboriginal Affairs, Indigenous Affairs, or Indigenous Advancement. The argument for the chief minister having the job is that it’s so important it should sit with the man in charge.

But in recent weeks it’s been clear the chief minister’s hectic schedule has meant he’s been unable to give Aboriginal Affairs the attention it deserves. At a press conference last month, Gunner was unable to answer questions about the latest Closing the Gap report, which had been released several hours prior.

His advisers argue criticism over this issue is unfair, as he had only received the report a few hours earlier and was preparing for his State of the Territory speech.

But it’s also fair to assume a dedicated Aboriginal Affairs minister would have made the Closing the Gap report their sole focus for days, if not weeks, leading up the event. Then there was the tragic incident in Tennant Creek.

Gunner was about to get on a plane from Sydney to the United States when this news broke.

And while it would harsh to criticise him for not cancelling that trip, some have noted that in the past four months the chief minister has spent more time in America than he has in remote parts of the Northern Territory.

At an Aboriginal Housing forum in Darwin on Thursday, Tobias Nganbe from the Rak Klrnmu clan near Wadeye told Gunner to “stop pretending” and spend more time in communities.

“The reality is this is about me and my grandkids,” he said. “When is it going to be time to come down and really walk the walk?”

All the flowery speeches in the world can’t compensate for actual time on the ground speaking to people about the real issues that affect their lives.

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In the past few months, scandals have engulfed a number of NT Government ministers, including Dale Wakefield, Lauren Moss, Natasha Fyles and Gerry McCarthy, who on Wednesday made a pretty ordinary effort of explaining how $82,000 had been spent building two tin sheds for Aboriginal people to live in as a part of its remote housing project.

One of the few ministers to avoid controversy since Labor came to power 18 months ago is Ken Vowles; no mean feat when you consider he holds the portfolio responsible for the divisive issue of fracking.

Vowles has made no secret of the fact he wants to be the Aboriginal Affairs minister. Gunner should step aside and give him the job. He should also promote the talented Selina Uibo to his cabinet.

If he fails to do this he runs the risk of facing a bush revolt that could cost him his job.