Jacinta Price calls for NT Attorney-General to resign following alcohol conflict of interest

It has been revealed Chansey Paech bought shares in a wholesale company which supplies alcohol to bottle shops in the NT.

On Tuesday, federal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price called on Deputy chief minister Chansey Paech to resign, calling his actions “sickening.”

There are calls for the Northern Territory Attorney-General to resign after it was revealed he purchased shares in a wholesale company that supplies alcohol to bottle shops in the NT, just months before his Labor government failed to renew Intervention-era grog bans on remote communities in 2022.

The end of the bans has seen a huge increase in domestic violence and alcohol fuelled assaults in the Territory.

Deputy chief minister Chansey Paech purchased an unknown number of shares in the ASX-listed company Metcash in May 2022, according to parliamentary disclosure records obtained by the NT Independent, before divesting them in December 2023 – just two days after then chief minister Natasha Fyles was forced to resign over undisclosed shares in a mining company.

Paech, a firm critic of the 2007 Intervention policy which included the banning of alcohol, pornography and limited welfare payments, was a supporter of legislation passed by the NT government in 2022 which gave communities the option to introduce alcohol for the first time in 15 years.

According to the NT Independent, Metcash is registered as a liquor wholesaler with the NT Government and supplies takeaway alcohol, as well as groceries to IGA stores in Alice Springs, Darwin and remote communities. A subsidiary also supplies alcohol to takeaway alcohol stores Thirsty Camel, Cellarbrations and Bottle-O stores in the NT and across the country.

At the time of purchase, Paech – who holds no legal qualifications – was the Minister of Indigenous Essential Services and Minister for Remote Housing and Town Camps. The NT Cabinet code of conduct forbids ministers from holding shares in any company “that may create a conflict of interest as a result of their portfolio responsibilities”.

In January 2023 prime minister Anthony Albanese ­announced alcohol restrictions would be implemented in Alice Springs after The Australian revealed the extent of the crime wave gripping the town following the expiration of federal “Stronger Futures” restrictions in July 2022.

“Mr Paech does not deserve the privilege of representing Northern Territorians,” said Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The restrictions introduced takeaway alcohol bans on Mondays and Tuesdays, limiting the purchase of alcohol during the rest of the week, and town camps and communities reverted back to being complete dry zones in February.

In January last year, Paech said Stronger Futures legislation was a “blanket prohibition on Aboriginal communities”.

On Tuesday, federal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price called on Paech to resign, calling his actions “sickening”.

“It is sickening to hear that an NT Minister may have deliberately allowed alcohol to flow where it is killing our people because it would deliver a profit to companies that he was invested in.

“Based on these allegations, Mr Paech does not deserve the privilege of representing Northern Territorians, and he certainly does not deserve the Honour of being Deputy Chief Minister,” Senator Price said.

“Chansey Paech needs to apologise and resign from the parliament.”

Paech, who has been a minister in the Territory since 2016, said that since becoming deputy chief minister, he had “divested all shares”.

“All rules have been followed,” he said. “The Chief Minister has made it clear that a comprehensive review of the conflict of interests process in the NTG is warranted and that the review is progressing.

However, according to the ministerial code of conduct, all ministers must divest shares that may be seen as a conflict of interest.

“Ministers must divest themselves completely of all shareholdings and other forms of equitable interest held in their private capacity in companies (both public and private) that may create a conflict of interest as a result of their portfolio responsibilities,” the code of conduct reads.