CLP and Territory Alliance coalition looks dicey as leaders trade barbs in NT News/Sky News debate
A COALITION between the CLP and Territory Alliance to form government is looking shaky, after the NT’s three Chief Ministerial hopefuls traded barbs in the only televised leaders’ debate for the 2020 election
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A COALITION between the CLP and Territory Alliance to form government is looking shaky, after the NT’s three Chief Ministerial hopefuls traded barbs in the only televised leaders’ debate for the 2020 election.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner, CLP’s Lia Finocchiaro and Territory Alliance’s Terry Mills went head to head in a Sky News leadership debate on Wednesday, with the three making what could be their final pitches to the undecided voting public before polls close on Saturday afternoon.
The Territory’s crippling $8.2 billion black hole, the post-coronavirus economy, the not so shady shade structure in the CBD, and what the government could look like were among key topics discussed at the 40 minute debate set against the backdrop of the Darwin Waterfront.
Unlike other debates so far this Territory election, the leaders were able to ask questions of each other, including one from Mr Gunner to Mr Mills querying if the latter would serve as Deputy Chief Minister under a CLP-Territory Alliance coalition.
Mr Mills, who remains adamant Territory Alliance can form government in its own right, confirmed there were no arrangements in place as yet.
Ms Finocchiaro didn’t take lightly to a question from Mr Mills, who asked how a government run by her would work considering her relative short time in parliament and the lack of parliamentary experience within the current CLP team.
Criticising him as “ageist or just downright rude”, Ms Finocchiaro pointed out that she had spent more time as an MLA during the ill-fated Mills-Giles CLP government years than he had.
“You can try and belittle my team (but) I back them all the way,” she said.
“(It’s a team) that would be a far better government than yours ever could.”
The CLP leader also hit out at Territory Alliance’s claim they wanted to change the government while still preferencing Labor above the CLP in three seats and the Greens above the CLP in about six.
Mr Gunner, sticking to Labor’s apparent campaign strategy, focused on the government’s coronavirus response strategy and questioned how his opponents would pay for the policy commitments made during the campaign trail.
Ms Finocchiaro hit some strife during the debate when she claimed the CLP would have put in place the same border control measures the NT has in place now, including border arrivals and statutory declarations, despite those measures not being announced by the government until ten days after she said she wanted to open the NT’s borders the in mid-June.
Crime and economy were at the core of Ms Finocchiaro’s pitch, asking voters to pick a team that could “work with the Commonwealth” and “stop the waste, stop the pet projects”.
Mr Mills, appealing to the disenfranchised, pitched Territory Alliance as a way to “reset governance” and “reset the decision making process” in government.
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Asked by debate moderator Sky New Darwin bureau chief Matt Cunningham if the government was relying too much on the public service, Mr Mills said he believed the number of senior executive public servants in the Territory was off “kilter” when compared to other jurisdictions.
Mr Mills said he didn’t have an “agenda to cut” jobs but to find “efficiencies”
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