Woman at centre of alleged cocaine sex scandal implicating Labor Party members breaks her silence

THE Labor MLA at the centre of the cocaine sex scandal was aware the woman he was in a sexual relationship with was a cocaine user, the NT News can reveal.

The woman at the centre of an alleged sex scandal within Territory Labor Party ranks has spoken publicly about the claims for the first time. Picture: iStock

• Gunner slams CLP for no ‘shred of evidence’ of cocaine sex scandal
• ‘No evidence’ of cocaine sex scandal, Gunner tells fiery parliament sitting
• NT Labor president Erina Early says Gunner must address allegations that ‘could impact’ party integrity
• NT News editorial: Gunner Government must live up to ‘open and transparent’ promise

THE Labor MLA at the centre of the alleged cocaine sex scandal was aware the woman he was in a sexual relationship with was a cocaine user, the NT News can reveal.

Sexually explicit text messages, seen by the NT News, were exchanged between the pair.

In the text messages, the woman explained to the MLA she had a bad batch of cocaine which had made her feel unwell.

There were several exchanges about their sexual experiences and desires.

A picture of a fifth floor staffer’s penis — not the sitting MLA — has also emerged in a separate exchange.

The NT News can confirm the police have obtained the text messages as part of an ongoing investigation.

It comes after Chief Minister Michael Gunner again fought off the CLP during parliamentary question time, slamming Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro for failing to present a shred of evidence to back up the “internet gossip”.

The woman at the centre of the scandal spoke publicly for the first time on Wednesday morning, confirming a sitting MLA is involved.

In an interview on ABC Darwin, the woman, who the NT News has chosen not to name, denied that any member of the party had done anything illegal, saying there was “no evidence” to show that.

The woman confirmed she had been involved in a relationship with the MLA, describing him as a “sweet man”.

However, she did confirm police had investigated the claims since reports of the scandal had emerged.

Police have so far chosen not to comment on the scandal despite the woman confirming they are investigating the claims.

The NT News has not suggested the MLA was involved in the cocaine use.

Ministers have told the NT News privately that the sitting MLA’s position in Parliament is untenable.

A screen shot from Michael Gunner's Facebook page about the Nathan Barrett sex scandal saga in 2016

“I’ve got all the evidence that they’ve got and Michael Gunner is right, there is no evidence that proves that any (MLA) has taken any cocaine, and there’s no evidence that any member has done anything illegal,” the woman said.

She claimed the matter had been turned into a “political weapon”.

“... it’s mostly nobody’s business, and it’s been turned into a public thing as a political weapon,” she said.

It comes after a fiery first question time of the parliamentary year yesterday, in which Chief Minister Michael Gunner slammed the CLP for failing to produce “a shred of evidence” to back up the claims.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro asked Mr Gunner to deny if “the people involved in the Labor cocaine sex scandal” were “members of your parliamentary team and staff”.

The question came after the Sunday Territorian, in its Bushranger column, reported about the alleged cocaine sex scandal involving a “Territory political party member”.

The CLP, in a bid to clarify that the party was not involved, issued a statement on Sunday in response to the column that has since snowballed into a major kerfuffle for NT Labor.

The government, for more than three straight days, has refused to acknowledge the allegations even though NT Labor Party president Erina Early on Monday called on her own side to address “anything that could impact the integrity of the party”.

Mr Gunner, in response to Ms Finocchiaro’s question, again refused to acknowledge the allegations, calling it “internet gossip”.

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“The (CLP have) elevated internet gossip to debate, and they have done it without any shred of evidence,” he said.

“If (the CLP) have evidence of the allegation, they should put it on the record … whatever evidence you have, take it to the police and I will support you in doing that”.

Mr Gunner also called the Opposition’s line of questioning Ms Finocchiaro’s “Godwin Grech moment”, in reference to the 2009 Utegate email forgery scandal that ultimately resulted in Mr Grech’s resignation from the Commonwealth public service.

Ms Finocchiaro slammed Mr Gunner for failing to address the allegations or investigate them, arguing he had an obligation not to mislead Territorians and that Mr Gunner had once said “open government is not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do”.

The NT News asked NT Police on Tuesday to confirm if it was or wasn’t looking into the allegations and reasons behind their decision.

An NT Police spokesman said the organisation would not be commenting.

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A member of the Labor Party told the NT News earlier in the week that 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.

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