Lessons from NT Covid-19 poll

The nation’s first election of the COVID-19 pandemic, held in the Northern Territory on Saturday, holds important lessons for Queensland and Western Australia, whose governments face the polls next.

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner is on track to be returned with or without a majority in the 25-seat unicameral Legislative Assembly. In contrast to 2016, when Labor won 18 seats and the opposition Country Liberals just two (it became one when former leader Gary Higgins retired), the new parliament is better balanced. As CLP leader Lia Finocchiaro said on election night: “The CLP is back.’’ She did well to bring her party back from near oblivion. It will have at least three seats, and possibly more.

The count is close, with some seats turning on a handful of votes. It is too soon to know if independents will play a supporting part in a new Labor government. Former chief minister Terry Mills’s new Territory Alliance flopped after he promised to end fracking, which the major parties support. It was a bad mistake.

Like Mr Gunner, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who goes to the polls on October 31, and WA Premier Mark McGowan, who faces voters in March, are playing parochial politics hard during COVID pandemic. But they will need to campaign on more than their coronavirus records. The NT has had no deaths from the virus and no recorded cases of community transmission. Keeping Territorians safe was the focus of Mr Gunner’s campaign. Border lockdowns are seen as popular among voters, and the NT has imposed 14 days of quarantine on visitors from COVID hotspots — currently Victoria and metropolitan Sydney. But many voters wanted more in other policy areas of government.

Mr Gunner made no major promises. But the CLP will have plenty to scrutinise in the next four years. A COVID-19 “crisis’’, such as it is in the NT, might not be seen as the time for austerity. But a looming debt crisis, an ever-expanding public sector wages bill and poor service delivery in remote regions leave the government, and the opposition, with plenty to do.