Goyder MLA Kezia Purick could become kingmaker in down to the wire NT election CDU expert says

Voters will by Saturday night reveal if they have largely opted to keep the status quo or chosen to install the NT’s first female CLP chief minister or a former chief minister to the top job.

VOTERS will by Saturday night reveal if they have largely opted to keep the status quo or chosen to install the NT’s first female CLP chief minister or a former chief minister to the top job.

It is set to be a closely fought election set against the backdrop of a once-in-a-generation pandemic-induced economic crisis.

As the leaders of the NT’s three major parties made their final pitches on the eve of the election, the result, as is traditional in the Territory, remains unpredictable.

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Chief Minister Michael Gunner, Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro and Territory Alliance leader Terry Mills at Darwin's Waterfront. Picture : Che Chorley

But Charles Darwin University Professor Rolf Gerritsen anticipates Territory Labor may see its majority dwindle and pick up 13 or 12 seats.

If it’s the former, Prof Gerritsen says the incumbent government will need to have “a very nice chat” to Goyder MLA Kezia Purick, who he expects to comfortably retain her seat.

The two other independent seats, Mulka and Nelson, he believes could go either way. “I think there will be a swing against Labor, but not enough to deliver government to CLP,” Prof Gerritsen said. Territory Alliance, via its leader Terry Mills, remains resolutely ambitious that voters have enough confidence in the NT’s newest party to give them a go to “reset governance”.

Kezia Purick is giving a character reference for a policeman in the supreme court.

But the NT News understands Mr Mills himself, according to third party polling, may not be safe in his own electorate of Blain, which he won after preferences in 2016.

As a respected Queensland Labor figure blasted his own party in that state for “hubris and complacency” for believing the coronavirus health response alone would be enough for the party to win its election, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he had “no regrets” about NT Labor’s campaign. “The question for Territorians is, who do they trust to lead that, to help them survive this?” he said.

“Who do they trust to help them adapt to the world that’s going to exist post-coronavirus and how do we rebound from that?”

Reduced to an effective party of one after the retirement of Gary Higgins, the CLP is notionally expected to pick up seats based on redistributions alone, though leader Lia Finocchiaro is banking on Territorians trusting the party they abandoned in 2016 to get the jurisdiction’s economy back on track.

“We believe in the future of the Territory,” she said.

“We believe in this place, and we want to know that future generations aren’t burdened and saddled with the debt that Labor has left them with.

“We can turn this around.”

Neither the CLP nor Territory Alliance will say whether or not a coalition is on the cards should the results come down to the wire, with Mr Mills adamant he was treating the election as though he was “playing to hit a six”.

“I’m not thinking of any other alternative here,” he said. “We believe that Territorians are genuinely expecting a change.”

Prof Gerritsen believes disenchanted “small L” liberals who deserted the Giles government in 2016 will have returned to the CLP, while those still disenfranchised with party politics will head to Territory Alliance.