Darwin resident, Labor voter Kay Thomson reveals why she turned her back on party

A longtime Labor supporter says she doesn’t think she’ll ‘bother’ returning to the party after her membership was torn up for siding with a political rival. Find out more.

Territory Labor have scrapped the membership after party rules were broken at the NT general election.

A longtime Labor supporter says she doesn’t think she’ll “bother” returning to the party after her membership was torn up for siding with a political rival, with the defector claiming the Opposition needs to get “squeaky clean” before it can win the Territory back.

Last month, Moulden woman Kay Thomson, 72, was officially exiled from the party after the organisation’s higher-ups discovered she voted against Labor candidate for Blain, Danielle Eveleigh at the 2024 NT election.

Against party protocol, Ms Thomson voted for and donated $25 to then-Member for Blain Mark Turner – a former Labor MLA who was also kicked out of the party and forced to serve as an Independent.

Ultimately, Country Liberal Party man Matthew Kerle would secure Blain.

Former Labor member Kay Thomson says the decision to ban her was “fairly ironic”. Picture: Supplied.

Almost four months on from the election, Ms Thomson received a letter from the party confirming her membership had been scrapped for the defection.

Ms Thomson was told she’d been blacklisted from joining the party for at least two years.

Despite the axing, Ms Thomson said she saw the funny side of the punishment.

“I’ve not lost sleep over it, I thought it was fairly ironic that nobody even asked me why I did it,” she told this masthead.

“I was disappointed and surprised they would do that – obviously somebody’s had the chance to go through (Mark Turner’s) donations and see if anyone from Labor had turned on them.”

Asked why she opted to vote Independent, Ms Thomson said she felt Mr Turner had a clear presence in the community compared to Labor.

“I gave him a donation out of my measly senior pension to help him with his cause, because I’m a family person and he’s always been there for the community,” she said.

“I couldn’t tell you who the Labor person was, they certainly didn’t door knock on my street and if they did they didn’t leave any notices.”

The letter Ms Thomson received from Labor. Picture: Supplied.

Ms Thomson said she was unlikely to return to her former preferred party.

“I don’t think I’ll bother rejoining,” she said.

With only four seats in-hand, Ms Thomson said Labor needed to address internal matters if they were to win back government.

“I think they need to be squeaky clean and live up to their own expectations,” she said.

“You can’t have it one way and do something else – you can’t say you’re going to do something and then say ‘oh no we can’t do that’.”

The Labor Party were contacted for comment however did not respond to requests.

Originally published as Darwin resident, Labor voter Kay Thomson reveals why she turned her back on party