Independent candidates, including Mulka’s Yingiya Guyula join forces as voters ditch bickering party politicians
FOUR independent NT parliamentary hopefuls have banded together, pledging to co-operate if elected
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FOUR independent NT parliamentary hopefuls have banded together, pledging to co-operate, if elected, on a shared platform of climate action and First Nations community justice initiatives.
Pointing to “expert analysis” that shows a hung parliament that would give independents a major governing role, the four independent candidates say punters are ditching the “two party system” of progress-stifling bickering politicians.
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Mulka MLA Yingiya Guyula, Arnhem hopeful Ian Gumbula, Barkly candidate Gadrian Hoosan and Braitling hopeful Kim Hopper have revealed they are pledging to co-operate in the next parliament if elected, spurred partly by frustrations of bush communities being left out of Darwin-centric policy decisions.
Mr Guyula, who sensationally unseated Labor’s then deputy leader Lynne Walker in Nhulunbuy (now Mulka) in the 2016 election, said he wanted to see “strong independent voices” in NT’s parliament who could speak without “being silenced by a Darwin agenda”.
Taking a swipe at party politics, Mr Guyula said the quartet believed, if elected, they could work constructively in the interest of their regions, not the “party masters”.
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He said voters wanted to see a “more collaborative approach” to policy and law making in the Territory, particularly when it comes to climate change and justice for First Nations peoples saying: “With strong voices we can end gas fracking and bring greater protection for our environment.”
“With strong voices we can bring justice reform,” he said.
The NT Parliament has throughout its history had, at any one time, about two independent representatives, though this statistic is skewed by the defection dramas during the CLP Mills-Giles government.
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