Bullying and abuse among indigenous Country Liberal MPs reaches fever pitch

THE NT faces another torrid week in parliament, as three indigenous backbench MPs continue a dispute over bullying and foul language.

THE Northern Territory faces another torrid week in parliament, as three indigenous backbench MPs continue a dispute over bullying and foul language, and their Country Liberal Party government’s perceived failure to deliver promises it made to the bush.

The three are attempting to take advantage of a temporary reduction in the government’s majority. But all could end up on the cross benches, forcing the CLP to rely on support from an independent until a by-election scheduled for April 12. If Labor wins that election, the CLP would have to govern in minority or go to the polls.

The trouble comes as The Australian can reveal Tourism Minister Matt Conlan told his entire government he had apologised for using foul language against one of the backbenchers two weeks before Chief Minister Adam Giles denied knowledge of the incident, and suggested it might not have occurred.

Country Liberals MP Gary Higgins, who has since called for the backbench MP to be sacked, responded to Mr Conlan’s email by suggesting the government establish a secret network of private accounts to hide communications from Freedom of Information requests. The dispute was ignited when Health Minister Robyn Lambley exposed Mr Conlan on March 7, for allegedly abusing indigenous backbencher Alison Anderson during a partyroom meeting in February. Ms Lambley said she could no longer defend Mr Conlan or “be part of any sort of cover up”.

Mr Giles responded that he was “not aware” of any offensive language being used. He also told a local radio station: “Matt Conlan didn’t say that, I never heard him say that.”

Speaker Kezia Purick suggested the dispute might be a matter of interpretation. Ms Anderson told ABC radio Mr Conlan had used the words, “Why don’t you do us all a big favour Alison, F off you C”. According to correspondence obtained by The Australian, Mr Conlan wrote to all 15 of his parliamentary colleagues on February 19, informing them he had apologised to Ms Anderson, and that she had accepted.

Mr Higgins replied, from his government account, saying it was important “emails such as Matt’s do not get accessed under FOI”.

“All of us have iPhones and use an Apple ID. These Apple ID’s all come with an attached email seperate (sic) from the NTG network and should be used for such emails,” he wrote.

“These emails should not be made available to anyone except the 16 of us. Can I suggest that at the next full wing we discuss the use of these emails for confidential/sensitive communcations (sic) that we never want subject to FOI.”

Neither Mr Higgins nor Ms Anderson responded to questions. Mr Giles declined to comment on “internal party matters”.

Opposition government accountability spokesman, Ken Vowles, labelled the CLP a “chaotic rabble”.