We should expect the same old Territory from this new NT Chief Minister

Eva Lawler and Natasha Fyles at the swear-in ceremony in Government House. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Last month, Northern Territory Treasurer and education minister Eva Lawler was booted during parliamentary sittings by a Labor colleague following an angry outburst that one member referred to as “unhinged”.

Last week Lawler became the Territory’s Chief Minister.

The appointment widely shocked Territorians – few members of the public would have put Lawler high up the list of the 13 possible Labor contenders.

In her seven years as a member of government the former schoolteacher has failed students, particularly remote Indigenous students, across the Territory in her role as education minister. Lawler also has been at the helm of several costly bungles in her former infrastructure portfolio.

In September, The Australian’s NT Schools in Crisis series revealed an estimated annual funding shortfall of $214.8m in Northern Territory education.

High bureaucratic spending on top of that meant less than half of the NT Education Department’s $1.2bn budget went directly into school spending.

As education minister Lawler promised to wind back the attendance-based funding model, which has been criticised widely as racist as it disproportionately punishes remote Indigenous schools. However, she said this would not happen until 2025, and in the meantime several schools have reported axing programs such as music and physical education because of lack of funding.

In remote homelands, some classrooms don’t have access to power, water or even full-time registered teachers.

Lawler denied the poor state of education was related to the Territory’s crime crisis, even though university-led research has shown a clear link between a decade-old government policy that removed local access to secondary education in 78 remote communities and youth crime.

Unsurprisingly, all this results in terrible educational outcomes.

In the Territory, 58 per cent of all students and 85 per cent of Indigenous students fall below minimum literacy and numeracy standards, and attendance rates are as low as 20 per cent in some remote schools.

Experts claimed the full picture of education in the Northern Territory amounted to a human rights violation, and The Australian understands some communities are investigating the possibility of a class-action suit against the NT government for failing their kids.

But the most outrageous part of it all was the education minister’s response.

Lawler refused to be interviewed and would take questions only via email, which she then failed to answer. Instead she issued a statement saying the government was ensuring “through an array of programs, strategies and measures, that all our children get the best possible access to a high-quality education”.

She then spoke to ABC Radio Darwin and claimed The Australian’s reports were a “miscalculation”, though she could not point to any factual errors.

A few weeks later when independent member for Araluen Robyn Lambley raised the reports in parliament and called for Lawler’s resignation, Lawler mocked Lambley, saying it was “bizarre that the issues she (Lambley) had read in The Australian were new to her; it was like a revelation”.

Mark Monaghan, Eva Lawler, Natasha Fyles, Chansey Paech and Paul Kirby at the swear-in ceremony in the Government House. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Which was it – a miscalculation or nothing new? And if it was nothing new, why hadn’t Lawler done anything about it?

Education hasn’t been Lawler’s only failing. As infrastructure minister she consistently has defended a $3.3m shade structure in the Darwin central business district that has become the butt of Top End jokes. The structure was designed for heat mitigation, with tropical vines that were supposed to stretch over the 55m wooden frame but failed to grow and temperatures dropped only 1C. The whole shemozzle wound up costing taxpayers $100,000 a year to maintain.

Lawler said she was proud of the government’s efforts to reduce heat and beautify the city. She also has defended a $100m cost blowout on an overpass on Darwin’s outskirts, and as Treasurer she once claimed Territorians could rest easy with the failing economy and sky-high cost of living because there was a new KFC being built near the CBD.

Territorians are sick of governments that double down on preposterous decisions; that carry on arrogantly as if nothing is going here on when the house is clearly on fire.

The Northern Territory leads the country in rates of domestic viol­ence, homelessness, alcohol abuse and incarceration. It has more heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease than anywhere else in Australia, and subsequently the lowest life expectancy.

Literacy and numeracy rates are abysmal, crime is through the roof and school attendance has fallen off a cliff.

Is it any wonder that former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott have suggested the NT is a “failed state” because of its inability to provide basic services to remote communities, including education?

Eva Lawler at her swear-in ceremony

All of these are complex, long-term issues that require innovative, long-term solutions. If the Territory wants to prove it’s not a failed state, it needs a leader who is willing to look beyond the next election, which is only eight months away. It needs someone brave enough to overhaul systems, even if the benefits won’t be seen until well after they’re out of office.

And central to all of this is integrity and accountability – the downfalls of Lawler’s predecessor Natasha Fyles. Fyles stepped down last week after the local media outlet she banned, the NT Independent, revealed she held undisclosed shares in South32, which owns GEMCO’s Groote Eylandt manganese mine. As health minister, Fyles had rejected a request to investigate the health impacts of the mine.

Lawler says in her new role as Chief Minister she will work to regain the trust of Territorians, but trust, integrity and accountability go hand-in-hand.

How will she restore trust if, when faced with scrutiny, she claims there’s nothing to see here?

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, as education minister Lawler claimed “the NT has a very strong, very robust education system”. She refused to take responsibility for a system that was beyond broken. She wouldn’t even be questioned about it.

Kylie Stevenson and Caroline Graham wrote the NT Schools in Crisis series for The Australian.