Pressure building on Chief Minister to address cocaine sex scandal allegations
PRESSURE is building on Chief Minister Michael Gunner, including from within his own party, to address allegations that Territory Labor Party members have been implicated in a cocaine sex scandal.
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PRESSURE is building on Chief Minister Michael Gunner, including from within his own party, to address allegations that Territory Labor Party members have been implicated in a cocaine sex scandal.
NT Labor president Erina Early, speaking on Mix 104.9 radio on Monday, said “anything that could impact the integrity of the party” needed to be addressed.
“If he doesn’t address them people will jump up and down,” she said.
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Finocchiaro calls on Gunner to address allegations Labor members involved in cocaine sex scandal
Mr Gunner, for a second day in a row, declined to acknowledge the scandal within his own ranks, saying if he spent his day “chasing every rumour, I would never get anything done”, when asked about the claims.
The NT News can confirm it has seen text messages sent between the people involved in the scandal and confirmed the veracity of the incident with multiple sources.
It is understood the incident occurred on NT election night last year and that one of the people involved sent pictures of certain body parts to another.
Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro, in a press conference on Monday pre-empting the upcoming parliamentary sittings starting today, said Mr Gunner had “serious questions to answer” about “serious criminal allegations” that had been put forward.
“He needs to come clean and explain to Territorians what he knows and what is going on to restore the integrity of the parliament and the government,” she said.
The NT News sought comment from NT Police about whether or not it was investigating the incident. NT Police did not respond by deadline.
Ms Finocchiaro said the allegations had been put to her office in the last week.
She signalled the CLP would be asking “the hard questions” of the government during parliamentary sittings, including on crime and the economy, but did not say outright if the Opposition would exercise their right of parliamentary privilege to shed more light on the incident.
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A member of the Labor Party told the NT News the scandal was an unwanted distraction. “We’re into a new term of government and something like this is not helpful to what we’re trying to achieve,” they said.
Federal Labor MP Luke Gosling declined to comment.
Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy’s office was also contacted for comment.
The NT News first made contact with two of the people allegedly involved last Tuesday.
They have yet to respond to calls or text messages.
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