Former NT chief minister Natasha Fyles set to lose seat to Greens

Former Northern Territory chief minister Natasha Fyles is likely to lose her seat to the Greens, marking the first time the party is set to enter Territory parliament.

Former NT chief minister Natasha Fyles. Picture: Liam Mendes

Former Northern Territory chief minister Natasha Fyles is likely to lose her seat to the Greens, marking the first time the party is set to enter Territory parliament.

A recount is under way in the Darwin seat of Nightcliff, where, as of Thursday morning – following a redistribution of preferences – the Greens’ Kat McNamara was leading Ms Fyles by 2238 votes to 2205.

If Ms Fyles loses her seat, it will mean Territory Labor will hold just four – all from the bush – with the CLP expected to win 17, and independents to hold three.

It is a spectacular reversal since her re-election in 2020, where she won with a majority of 24.9 per-cent – marking her seat as the safest.

It comes as new Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro affirmed her commitment to Territorians on Thursday that crime would be No 1 on her agenda.

“We’ve got a big job ahead, and we want to make sure that we bring Territorians with us on this journey of reform, but being here in Canberra gives me an ­important opportunity to reset that relationship and make sure that we put the Territory first and that we start to turn the tide on what has been 19 of the last 23 years (of) wall-to-wall Labor for the Territory,” Ms Finocchiaro told Sky News from Canberra ahead of Friday’s national ­cabinet.

“You can’t have a strong small business sector, people enjoying their life, while law and order is out of control.

“We’re ready to go for parliament, parliament will be announced in the coming weeks and that is where we will pass Declan’s Law.

“Young Declan Laverty was stabbed in his workplace and killed, and Declan’s Law represents an opportunity for us to reset laws in the Territory to put the right for people to be safe above the right of criminals,” she said.

In December last year, Ms Fyles was forced to resign as chief minister following her failure to declare shares in mining company South32.

Concerns of a conflict of interest were raised after Ms Fyles, who was also health minister, declared her government would not investigate air pollution levels at a mine owned by the company on Groote Eylandt.

Ms Fyles oversaw the massive boom in youth crime in Alice Springs at the start of 2023 after the sunsetting of alcohol restrictions, and was widely criticised for her response.

After she became chief minister following Michael Gunner’s resignation in May 2022, Stronger Futures legislation that had banned alcohol in town camps and smaller Indigenous communities expired two months later.

Many expected Labor to pass legislation to continue the bans but it didn’t, and rates of alcohol-fuelled harm rose sharply, particularly in Alice Springs.

Ms Fyles also failed to tackle the shortfall of $214.8m a year for NT schools, which disproportionately affects the country’s most disadvantaged students under an attendance-based funding model that operates nowhere else in the country.

During her tenure, Ms Fyles was NT attorney-general and minister for justice, and the ­longest-serving health minister.

She introduced and passed legislation allowing for surrogacy in the Territory, delivered a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner that aids in the diagnoses and treatment of cancer in 2018 and transitioned health services to community control in remote communities.