Who is new NT leader Lia Finocchiaro?
Described as having ‘Territory tenacity’, the granddaughter of Italian immigrants is from a prominent Darwin family which includes property developers and entrepreneurs across a range of sectors.
Lia Finocchiaro was 28 and only a year into her parliamentary career when she became collateral damage in a Country Liberal Party coup against its leader Terry Mills. It was 2013 and one of new leader Adam Giles’s first acts was to fire Ms Finocchiaro – Mr Mills’s ally – from his cabinet. The youngest star of the CLP had been a minister for just seven days.
Mr Mills had known Ms Finocchiaro and her family for many years by then because his son went to school with her at Darwin’s Kormilda College.
As Mr Mills and Ms Finocchiaro got into a lift together outside the Speakers’ office, he gave some advice.
“I said ‘We are going through all sorts of challenges here but please, Lia, play the long game’,” Mr Mills said.
“And God bless her, she has played the long game. I am really proud of her.”
In Darwin, the Finocchiaros have become a large and important family. Last October, Ms Finocchiaro told how all four of her grandparents migrated from Italy to Australia in the 1950s “in search of opportunity and a better life”. The parents of Ms Finocchiaro’s father chose Darwin.
“I am so thankful that they made the Territory home,” she wrote on Facebook in a post that coincided with Grandparents Day.
“My father was born here, I was born here and my children were born here.”
She posted a photo of her paternal grandmother Rita standing with her and her sister when they were little girls.
“(She) gave us amazing love and support, and we are blessed to have my Nonna Rita in our lives at age 97,” Ms Finocchiaro wrote.
Among the Finocchiaros of Darwin are successful property developers Ross and Terry, her uncles.
Ms Finocchiaro’s father built his career as a public servant in the Northern Territory’s planning department.
After high school, Ms Finocchiaro studied law and international studies at the University of Adelaide.
She returned to Darwin and worked as a lawyer at Clayton Utz. In 2012, she was a finalist for Young Australian of the Year because of her charity work for children, the prevention of SIDS and advocacy for fairer pay and representation for women.
Those close to Ms Finocchiaro say she is considered far less conservative than some others in her party but she is also pragmatic and willing to compromise.
They say she supported the Indigenous voice to parliament for some time before announcing she would vote no at the referendum last October, citing the proposal’s lack of detail.
Now 39, Ms Finocchiaro is married to Sam Burke and they have two children. Mr Burke’s father, Denis Burke, is a former CLP leader and was NT chief minister from 1999 to 2001.
Mr Giles, the former NT chief minister who now runs Hancock Agriculture and S. Kidman & Co, told The Australian Ms Finocchiaro had “Territory tenacity”.
“I think she will make an outstanding leader,” he said.
“From as far back as 2014-15 I said she would be the next Country Liberals chief minister.
‘The opportunities to grow the NT and northern Australia are vast and Lia is the best person to provide the direction to do this, but first crime has to be addressed so people want to live, stay and play in the NT and do it safely,” Mr Giles said.
On Sunday, Mr Mills – who has since left politics and returned to Western Australia where he is running his own business – said he hoped the CLP would be disciplined in victory.
He said even though Ms Finocchiaro had led the party to an emphatic victory, there could always be plotters in the background. “I won the popular vote but I couldn’t survive the party,” Mr Mills.
“I would urge the party to focus on the long game, too.”
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