Dave Tollner | |
---|---|
Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory | |
In office 13 March 2013 –22 August 2014 | |
Preceded by | Willem Westra van Holthe |
Succeeded by | Peter Chandler |
Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for Fong Lim | |
In office 9 August 2008 –8 August 2016 | |
Preceded by | New division |
Succeeded by | Jeff Collins |
Member of the Australian Parliament for Solomon | |
In office 10 November 2001 –24 November 2007 | |
Preceded by | New seat |
Succeeded by | Damian Hale |
Personal details | |
Born | Biloela,Queensland | 31 January 1966
Political party | Country Liberal Party / Liberal |
Occupation | Manager |
Website | davidtollner |
David William Tollner (born 31 January 1966) is an Australian politician. He was the Country Liberal Party member for Solomon in the Australian House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007,and then served in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly as the member for Fong Lim from 2008 to 2016. He was the Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory under chief minister Adam Giles from 2013 to 2014. During his time in federal parliament,he sat with the Liberal Party.
Tollner was born in Biloela,Queensland,and worked as a manager and company director before entering politics. He contested the 1997 territory election as an independent,narrowly losing to CLP candidate Chris Lugg in the seat of Nelson. He subsequently won the new federal seat of Solomon for the CLP at the 2001 federal election,and was re-elected at the 2004 election. He was narrowly defeated by Labor candidate Damian Hale at the 2007 election. [1] [2]
Tollner sat with the Liberal Party in federal parliament during his time as member for Solomon. [3]
Years | Term | Electoral division | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2008 –2012 | 11th | Fong Lim | Country Liberal | |
2012 –2016 | 12th | Fong Lim | Country Liberal |
Tollner then contested the 2008 territory election, winning the new seat of Fong Lim and defeating Labor minister Matthew Bonson. [4] He was re-elected at the 2012 election, and upon the CLP's victory was appointed Minister for Health, Minister for Alcohol Rehabilitation and Policy, and Minister for Housing. [5] In March 2013, Mills expelled Tollner from his cabinet after a heated disagreement between the two at a party meeting. According to former MLA Daryl Manzie, Tollner swore at Mills and threw a stack of cabinet papers at him before walking out of the room. [6]
Tollner was appointed deputy chief minister of the Northern Territory on 13 March 2013. He caused controversy in August 2014 when he referred to the gay son of fellow CLP MP Gary Higgins as a "pillow biter" and "shirt lifter". [7] [8] As a result, it was announced that Tollner's resignation as deputy leader of the CLP had been accepted. [9] Despite that, Tollner said a few days later that he wanted to be restored to his former position or he would quit the party, leaving it in a precarious position on the floor of the Legislative Assembly. [10] On 1 September, Chief Minister Adam Giles threw open the leadership and deputy leadership to a party room ballot. Giles was re-elected as CLP leader, and Peter Chandler was voted in as his deputy. [11] He has also been accused of making racist comments; in 2014 he was accused of calling two women "lubras", which is a racial slur targeted at Indigenous women. [12]
A redistribution ahead of the 2016 election all but erased Tollner's majority in Fong Lim, slashing it from a fairly safe 7.3 percent to an extremely marginal 0.2 percent. Tollner tried to transfer to the newly created seat of Spillett, which had absorbed much of the eastern portion of Fong Lim. However, he lost a November 2015 preselection battle to Lia Finocchiaro, the member for neighbouring Drysdale. His senior advisor, Tim Dixon, was pre-selected for Fong Lim, [13] [14] but lost the seat to Labor.
The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP), commonly known as the Country Liberals, is a centre-right and conservative political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In territory politics, it operates in a two-party system with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It also contests federal elections as an affiliate of the Liberal Party of Australia and National Party of Australia, the two partners in the federal coalition.
The Division of Solomon is an Australian Electoral Division in the Northern Territory. It is largely coextensive with the Darwin/Palmerston metropolitan area. The only other division in the territory, the Division of Lingiari, covers the remainder of the territory.
Terence Kennedy Mills is an Australian politician. He served as chief minister of the Northern Territory from 2012 to 2013 and was leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) from 2003 to 2005 and 2008 to 2013.
Fong Lim is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory.
Peter Glen Chandler is an Australian politician. He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, and held the seat of Brennan from 2008 to 2016. He was Deputy Chief Minister from 2014 to 2015 and a minister under both Terry Mills and Adam Giles. He lost his seat at the 2016 general election. Chandler lives in Palmerston with his wife, Robyn, and four children.
Adam Graham Giles is an Australian former politician and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (2013–2016) as well as the former leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament. Giles is the first Indigenous Australian to serve as a head of government in Australia.
Willem Rudolf Westra van Holthe is an Australian politician. He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2008 to 2016, representing the electorate of Katherine. He was Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 6–14 March 2013 and from February 2015 to February 2016, resuming the position following a leadership challenge to Chief Minister Adam Giles, in which he was briefly the Chief Minister-designate. He served as Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries, Minister for Land Resource Management and Minister for Essential Services (2012–2016), Minister for Mines and Energy (2012–2015) and Minister for Public Employment (2015–2016) under both Terry Mills and Giles.
The 2016 Northern Territory general election was held on Saturday 27 August 2016 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.
Robyn Jane Lambley is an Australian politician. She is an independent member representing the division of Araluen in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, having been first elected in a 2010 by-election as a member of the Country Liberal Party. She resigned from the party and contested Araluen as an independent in 2016. She was a member of the Territory Alliance between March and October 2020.
Lia Emele Finocchiaro is an Australian politician who has served as the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory since August 2024. A member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP), she has represented the seat of Spillett in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since her election in 2016. Following the resignation of Gary Higgins on 1 February 2020, she became the Leader of the Opposition in the Northern Territory. Prior to this, she served as the member for Drysdale from 2012 to 2016.
Nathan Barrett is a former Australian politician who represented the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly seat of Blain from 2014 to 2016.
A leadership spill of the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory occurred 2–3 February 2015.
Spillett is a division of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in Australia. It was created in 2016, for the 2016 general elections, and surrounds Palmerston. It is named for Peter Spillett, a historian and former member of Darwin City Council.
Jeffrey David Collins is an Australian politician. He was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2016 to 2020, representing the electorate of Fong Lim. He was member of the governing Labor Party, but was one of three MPs excluded from the Labor caucus on 21 December 2018 over alleged criticism of the government, and resigned from the party on 8 February 2019 to sit as an independent. In March 2020 he joined the Territory Alliance as its second MP.
Eva Dina Lawler is an Australian former politician who served as the 13th chief minister of the Northern Territory from 2023 to 2024, holding office as the leader of the Territory Labor Party. She was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the electorate of Drysdale from 2016 until her defeat at the 2024 Northern Territory general election. Before becoming chief minister she held various ministerial offices in the Gunner and Fyles governments.
The 2020 Northern Territory general election was held on 22 August 2020 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.
Territory Alliance was an Australian political party based in the Northern Territory. It was founded in 2019 by Terry Mills, an incumbent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. He had been elected as a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP).
The 2024 Northern Territory general election was held on 24 August 2024 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament. Members were elected through full preferential instant-runoff voting in single-member electorates. The election was conducted by the Northern Territory Electoral Commission (NTEC).
A by-election in the seat of Fannie Bay in the Northern Territory was held on 20 August 2022, following the resignation of Michael Gunner, the MLA for Fannie Bay and former chief minister, on 27 July 2022. Early voting started on Monday 8 August.
Tanzil Rahman is an Australian politician who since the 2024 Northern Territory general election has been the MLA for Fong Lim in Darwin's east. He succeeded former education minister Mark Monaghan, winning around 57.8% of the two-party-preferred vote. Before entering the Northern Territory Parliament, Rahman worked for the Department of the Chief Minister and Cabinet.