Adam Giles puts focus on voters, then sacks minister

ADAM  Giles promised a new focus on “the needs of Territor­ians” after reasserting control yesterday — then sacked his education minister.

Chief Minister Adam Giles and Willem Westra van Holthe yesterday after a bizarre 24 hours in Territory politics. Picture: Elise Derwin

ADAM  Giles promised a new focus on “the needs of Territor­ians” after reasserting control as Northern Territory Chief Minister yesterday — then sacked his education minister for dissent.

It remained unclear last night whether Mr Giles held majority support among his parliamentary colleagues after 24 hours of polit­ical chaos and a four-hour crisis meeting that produced an alliance between the Chief Minister, who refused to quit, and his challenger, Willem Westra van Holthe.

Some MPs said Mr Giles and his allies had set a dangerous precedent by threatening to bring the government down on Tuesday night.

Mr Giles yesterday sacked his education minister Robyn Lamb­ley, the woman who helped organise a botched coup attempt on Monday night that nearly put an end to his political career.

On her way back to Alice Springs, Ms Lambley accused Mr Giles of lacking the qualities necessary to be leader. She questioned whether he had the confidence of his parliamentary colleagues.

“He lacks honesty, he lacks respec­t and he lacks integrity,” she said. “We know a vote wasn’t taken in wing meeting (on Tuesday). He does not have the full confidence of the parliamentary wing, I believe.”

Other Country Liberal Party sources confirmed that no formal ballot was taken during Tuesday night’s crisis meeting.

On Monday night, nine of the CLP’s 14 MPs had signed a declaration of support for Mr Westra van Holthe as leader.

Prior to the meeting from which he emerged still as leader, Mr Giles told media his challenger, Mr Westra van Holthe, lacked the “capacity, capability or the tenacity or the professionalism” to be chief minister.

When the pair emerged together almost four hours later, Mr Westra van Holthe was Mr Giles’s deputy. Both sought to claim the CLP team was united.

But sources told The Australian yesterday that Mr Giles and his supporters had kept control of the government not by winning over their colleagues but through “bullying, abuse and threats”.

They accused Mr Giles and his allies of ignoring precedent and democracy. “They just came in and started screaming … I’ve never seen anything more disgusting,” one MP said.

“I know we did the right thing by trying to get rid of Giles … to play that card, to threaten to bring everything down if you don’t get what you want, that’s disgusting.”

Another suggested that, while there was no immediate appetite for another leadership contest, the situation was far from stable. “We can roll that dice too, do the same thing and say, ‘if you don’t play ball, we’ll f..k’ you up’,” the MP said.

The Australian understands that Mr Giles emerged as leader after a half-hour private meeting between himself and Mr Westra van Holthe. The pair took to radio yesterday seeking to put forward a united front.

Mr Giles described the leadership turmoil as “bullshit” and “bloody stupid”. He promised to put local issues at the forefront of his government’s agenda, in an appare­nt departure from previous attention to macro-economic issue­s and “developing the North”.

“We need to get back to a focus on making people’s lives simpler, safer and easier, concentrating on how government, and politicians, can focus more on the individual rather than treat our citizens like they are part of some economic agenda,” Mr Giles said. “Territorians are part of a community, not a five-year plan.”

Mr Westra van Holthe characterised his failed leadership bid as “courageous”.

He said the government needed to worry less about “things like Moody’s credit ratings”.

“We felt we weren’t having our concerns dealt with properly,’’ he said. “There were terrible frustrations that had built up, and we took the courageous step to challenge.’’ He acknowledged that the skirmish had been “difficult for Territ­orians to stomach” but called the outcome a “pretty good result”.

Mr Giles refused to rule out a return to cabinet by his disgraced former deputy Dave Tollner, who was forced to resign in August after making homophobic comments to a gay staffer.

Opposition spokeswoman on government accountability Nat­asha Fyles said the deeply divided CLP government was a “ticking time bomb”.

“A party that can’t govern itself can’t govern the Territory,’’ Ms Fyles said. “It’s clear their internal rifts haven’t healed since Adam Giles knifed Terry Mills and the circus of the past days has made them a laughing stock.

“The CLP’s chaos has seen a government steeped in arrogance more interested in serving themselves than Territorians.”