Territory Alliance

Last updated

Territory Alliance
AbbreviationTA
Leader Terry Mills
FoundedNovember 2019 (2019-11)
Dissolvedc. 2020
Ideology Regionalism
Political position Big tent
NT Legislative Assembly
3 / 25
(2020)
Alice Springs Town Council
1 / 9
(2020)
Website
https://www.territoryalliance.org/

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). [1]

Contents

In March 2020, two additional independent MLAs joined the party, Jeff Collins (independent, formerly Australian Labor Party) and Robyn Lambley (formerly CLP). This saw the Alliance surpass the CLP as the second-largest party in the Legislative Assembly, but failed to gain official opposition status after a secret ballot of non-Government members of the Legislative Assembly instead recognised the CLP in a 5-3 vote. [2]

Despite hopes of forming government in its own right, or a coalition with the CLP or Labor in a minority government, the party was left with only one seat following the 2020 Territory election. [3] With Robyn Lambley's departure from the Territory Alliance, the party was left with no representation in the Legislative Assembly.

History

In March 2020 the Alliance gained its second MP, former Australian Labor Party (ALP) member Jeff Collins, who had been expelled from the ALP in 2018. [4] Collins' decision to join the Alliance saw it draw level with the CLP as the equal second-largest party in the Assembly. This prompted Mills to suggest his party had a claim to the status of official opposition. [5]

On 18 March 2020, independent MLA and former CLP deputy chief minister Robyn Lambley announced that she was joining the Alliance. This gave the party its third MLA and saw it pass the CLP as the second-largest parliamentary party. [6] However, less than a week after claiming opposition status, CLP leader Lia Finocchiaro put a motion to the Legislative Assembly seeking recognition of the official opposition, which the CLP won in a 5-3 vote (with the Labor Government abstaining and the three independents favouring the CLP). [2]

Lambley was the only member of Territory Alliance to be re-elected in the 2020 general election, narrowly retaining her seat despite an 8.1% swing against her. In October 2020, Lambley confirmed she had resigned from the party and would once again represent Araluen as an independent. [7] This leaves Territory Alliance with no parliamentary representation in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.

Ideology and positions

Territory Alliance has promoted itself as an "ideology-free" alternative to the Northern Territory's two major parties, the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP) and centre-right Country Liberal Party (CLP). [4] [8]

In November 2019, Mills announced that the party's key issues would be "law and order" and "youth crime", while party secretary and Charles Darwin University law lecturer Danial Kelly said that the new party would be "non-religious". The party's first candidate announcements for the 2020 Northern Territory general election included Kelly and Regina McCarthy, a former candidate for the defunct far-right Rise Up Australia Party. The selection of McCarthy, as well as Kelly's "strong religious conservative" views, led the Northern Territory News to describe the party's candidates as having a "far-right tinge". McCarthy stated that her views had "evolved" since her RUAP candidacy in the 2019 federal election. [9] [10]

Incumbent MLA Jeff Collins, who joined the Alliance in March 2020, had been elected as a member of the ALP and is a "vocal advocate of progressive issues such as drug decriminalisation". He has stated that the "left/right ideological dichotomy [...] has not produced good government for us" and that more conservative members of the party "still are people I can have conversations with". The Alliance preferenced the Greens ahead of the ALP and CLP at the 2020 Johnston by-election. [8] Another former Labor MLA, Ken Parish, joined the party in early 2020. [11]

In June 2020, the party announced its policy of a ban on fracking. [12]

Election results

In December 2019, the party announced that their candidate in the 2020 Johnston by-election would be Steven Klose, the CLP candidate for the seat at the previous election. [13] Klose finished runner-up to the ALP candidate Joel Bowden on both first preferences (22.2 percent) and the two-party preferred vote (47.4 percent). [14]

At the 2020 Northern Territory general election, Territory Alliance contested 21 of the 25 seats in the parliament, holding hopes of building on their three seats to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament, with Mills even saying his intention was to win government outright. [15] However, the ambitions of the party were dashed as leader Mills lost his seat of Blain, and Jeff Collins the seat of Fong Lim (both to Labor). The party failed to gain any other seats, leaving Robyn Lambley (Araluen) the only remaining member in the parliament. [3]

However in October 2020 Lambley confirmed that she had resigned from party to sit in parliament as an independent. Before her resignation, Territory Alliance had considered expelling Lambley for reasons including not being a "team player." [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Country Liberal Party</span> Northern Territory political party

The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP), commonly known as the Country Liberals, is a centre-right political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In local 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Territory Legislative Assembly</span> Legislative house of the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory

The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method for the Assembly is the full-preferential voting system, having previously been optional preferential voting. Elections are on the fourth Saturday in August of the fourth year after the previous election, but can be earlier in the event of a no confidence vote in the Government. The most recent election for the Legislative Assembly was the 2020 election held on 22 August 2020. The next election is scheduled for 24 August 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electoral division of Araluen</span>

Araluen is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1983, replacing the electorate of Alice Springs, which had been abolished as part of the enlargement of the Assembly. The electorate covers a 8 km2 (3.1 sq mi) area to the south and west of Alice Springs, including the Alice Springs CBD, the suburb of Araluen, and some surrounding rural areas. There were 5,742 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2005 Northern Territory general election</span>

A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia, on 18 June 2005. The centre-left Labor Party, led by Chief Minister Clare Martin, won a second term with a landslide victory, winning six of the ten seats held by the opposition Country Liberal Party in the 25-member Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, bringing their total to 19. It was the second largest victory in any Northern Territory election. The only larger majority in the history of the Territory was in the first election, in 1974. In that contest, the CLP won 17 of the 19 seats in the chamber, and faced only two independents as opposition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2001 Northern Territory general election</span>

A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia, on 18 August 2001. The centre-left Labor Party (ALP), led by Clare Martin, won a surprising victory over the Country Liberal Party (CLP). Before this, the CLP had held 18 out the 25 seats in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly to the ALP's 7. After this election, the ALP held the majority with 13 seats to the CLP's 10, consigning the CLP to opposition for the first time since the Territory gained responsible government. Martin became Chief Minister, succeeding the CLP's Denis Burke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1990 Northern Territory general election</span>

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 27 October 1990, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Marshall Perron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1983 Northern Territory general election</span>

A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia on Saturday 3 December 1983. The result was a landslide victory for the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Paul Everingham over the Australian Labor Party (ALP) opposition under Opposition leader Bob Collins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Mills (Australian politician)</span> Australian politician

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 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 Northern Territory general election</span>

General elections were held in the Northern Territory of Australia on 9 August 2008. Of the 25 seats in the Legislative Assembly, 23 were contested; two safe Labor seats were uncontested. The incumbent centre-left Labor Party (ALP), led by Chief Minister Paul Henderson won a narrow third term victory against the opposition centre-right Country Liberal Party (CLP), led by Terry Mills. Labor suffered a massive and unexpected swing against it, to hold a one-seat majority in the new parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of the Northern Territory</span>

The Parliament of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. It consists of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and the Administrator of the Northern Territory, who represents the Governor-General. It is one of three unicameral parliaments in Australia, along with those of Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. The Legislative Assembly replaced the previous Legislative Council in 1974. It sits in Parliament House, Darwin.

Kezia Dorcas Tibisay Purick is an Australian politician. She is an independent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, having held her seat of Goyder since the 2008 election. Prior to entering Parliament, Purick was the CEO of the NT Minerals Council for 16 years. Originally elected as a member of the Country Liberal Party, she became an independent in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Northern Territory general election</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lia Finocchiaro</span> Australian politician (born 1984)

Lia Emele Finocchiaro is an Australian politician. She has been a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the seat of Spillett since her election in 2016. She became Leader of the Opposition in the Northern Territory after the resignation of Gary Higgins on 1 February 2020. She was previously the member for Drysdale from 2012 to 2016.

This is a list of electoral division results for the Northern Territory 2012 General Election.

This is a list of members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2016 to 2020, as elected at the 2016 election.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Northern Territory general election</span>

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.

This is a list of members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2020 to 2024, as elected at the 2020 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2024 Northern Territory general election</span>

The 2024 Northern Territory general election is scheduled to be held on 24 August 2024 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.

References

  1. ↑ "Party time for Terry's Territory Alliance as election tilt looms large". Northern Territory News. 16 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 Hind, Rick (24 March 2020). "CLP reclaims NT opposition status in surprise vote". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  3. 1 2 "A party of one: Can Territory Alliance survive with Robyn Lambley as its sole survivor?". ABC News. 4 September 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  4. 1 2 James, Verity (10 March 2020). "NT election 2020: Independent Jeff Collins joins Territory Alliance, ramping up threat to CLP". ABC News. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  5. ↑ "NT Speaker Kezia Purick says she won't rule on who should be the Territory's political opposition". ABC News. 11 March 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  6. ↑ "Robyn Lambley to join Territory Alliance". Alice Springs News. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  7. ↑ James, Felicity (21 October 2020). "Territory Alliance party ousts Robyn Lambley, leaving it with no seats in Parliament". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  8. 1 2 Vivian, Steve (11 March 2020). "Jeff Collins explains why he has gone from Labor MP to independent to Territory Alliance convert". ABC News. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  9. ↑ Breen, Jacqueline (26 November 2019). "Territory Alliance nominates 'law and order' and 'youth crime' as key election focus issues". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  10. ↑ "Far-right tinge to party line-up". Northern Territory News. 26 November 2019.
  11. ↑ "Terry Mills with former Labor MLA, Ken Parish". Territory Alliance. 22 February 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  12. ↑ "New NT party Territory Alliance makes surprise election pledge to ban fracking". www.abc.net.au. 23 June 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  13. ↑ "Klose to contest by-election for Alliance". Northern Territory News. 2 December 2019.
  14. ↑ "Johnston by-election". ABC News. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  15. ↑ "NT coalition could be policy chaos: Gunner". The Canberra Times. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "Territory Alliance party ousts Robyn Lambley, leaving it with no seats in Parliament - ABC News". ABC News. 21 October 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.