Chief Minister of the Northern Territory | |
---|---|
Department of the Chief Minister | |
Style | The Honourable |
Status | Head of government |
Abbreviation | CM |
Member of |
|
Reports to | Parliament |
Seat | Darwin, Northern Territory |
Appointer | Administrator of the Northern Territory by convention, based on appointee's ability to command confidence in the Legislative Assembly |
Term length | At the Administrator's pleasure contingent on the chief minister's ability to command confidence in the house of Parliament |
Constituting instrument | None (constitutional convention) |
Formation | 19 October 1974 as Majority Leader 1 July 1978 as chief minister |
First holder | Goff Letts as Majority Leader Paul Everingham as chief minister |
Deputy | Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory |
Salary | A$325,392 [1] |
Website | www.chiefminister.nt.gov.au |
The chief minister of the Northern Territory is the head of government of the Northern Territory. The office is the equivalent of a state premier. When the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was created in 1974, the head of government was officially known as majority leader. This title was used in the first parliament (1974–1977) and the first eighteen months of the second. When self-government was granted the Northern Territory in 1978, the title of the head of government became chief minister.
The chief minister is formally appointed by the administrator, who in normal circumstances will appoint the head of whichever party holds the majority of seats in the unicameral Legislative Assembly. In times of constitutional crisis, the administrator can appoint someone else as chief minister, though this has never occurred.
Since 21 December 2023, following the resignation of Natasha Fyles, the chief minister is Eva Lawler of the Labor Party. She is the third female chief minister of the Northern Territory.
The Country Liberal Party won the first Northern Territory election on 19 October 1974 and elected Goff Letts majority leader. He headed an Executive that carried out most of the functions of a ministry at the state level. At the 1977 election Letts lost his seat and party leadership. He was succeeded on 13 August 1977 by Paul Everingham (CLP) as Majority Leader. When the Territory attained self-government on 1 July 1978, Everingham became chief minister with greatly expanded powers.
In 2001, Clare Martin became the first Labor and female chief minister of the Northern Territory. Until 2004 the conduct of elections and drawing of electoral boundaries was performed by the Northern Territory Electoral Office, a unit of the Department of the chief minister. In March 2004 the independent Northern Territory Electoral Commission was established.
In 2013, Mills was replaced as chief minister and CLP leader by Adam Giles at the 2013 CLP leadership ballot on 13 March to become the first indigenous Australian to lead a state or territory government in Australia. [2]
Following the 2016 election landslide outcome, Labor's Michael Gunner became chief minister; he was the first Chief Minister who was born in the Northern Territory. On 10 May 2022, Gunner announced his intention to resign. [3] On 13 May 2022, Natasha Fyles was elected to the position by the Labor caucus. [4] On 19 December 2023, Fyles resigned following controversy over undeclared shares in mining company South32. [5] On 21 December 2023, Eva Lawler replaced Fyles by a unanimous decision of the Labor caucus.
From the foundation of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in 1974 until the granting of self-government in 1978, the head of government was known as the majority leader:
No. | Portrait | Name Electoral division (Birth–death) | Election | Term of office | Political party | Executive | Administrator | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Term start | Term end | Time in office | |||||||
1 | Goff Letts MLA for Victoria River (1928–2023) | 1974 | 19 October 1974 | 12 August 1977 | 2 years, 297 days | Country Liberal | Letts | Jock Nelson (1973–1975) | |
None (1975–1978) | |||||||||
2 | Paul Everingham MLA for Jingili (born 1943) | 1977 | 13 August 1977 | 30 June 1978 | 321 days | Country Liberal | Everingham | ||
John England (1978–1981) |
From 1978, the position was known as the chief minister:
No. | Portrait | Name Electoral division (Birth–death) | Election | Term of office | Political party | Ministry | Administrator | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Term start | Term end | Time in office | |||||||
1 | Paul Everingham MLA for Jingili (born 1943) | — | 1 July 1978 | 15 October 1984 | 6 years, 106 days | Country Liberal | Everingham | John England (1978–1981) | |
1980 | |||||||||
Eric Johnston (1981–1989) | |||||||||
1983 | |||||||||
2 | Ian Tuxworth MLA for Barkly (1942–2020) | — | 16 October 1984 | 13 May 1986 | 1 year, 209 days | Country Liberal | Tuxworth | ||
3 | Stephen Hatton MLA for Nightcliff (born 1948) | — | 14 May 1986 | 12 July 1988 | 2 years, 59 days | Country Liberal | Hatton | ||
1987 | |||||||||
4 | Marshall Perron MLA for Fannie Bay (born 1942) | — | 13 July 1988 | 24 May 1995 | 6 years, 315 days | Country Liberal | Perron | ||
James Muirhead (1989–1993) | |||||||||
1990 | |||||||||
Austin Asche (1993–1997) | |||||||||
1994 | |||||||||
5 | Shane Stone MLA for Port Darwin (born 1950) | — | 25 May 1995 | 7 February 1999 | 3 years, 258 days | Country Liberal | Stone | ||
1997 | |||||||||
Neil Conn (1997–2000) | |||||||||
6 | Denis Burke MLA for Brennan (born 1948) | — | 8 February 1999 | 27 August 2001 | 2 years, 200 days | Country Liberal | Burke | ||
John Anictomatis (2000–2003) | |||||||||
7 | Clare Martin MLA for Fannie Bay (born 1952) | 2001 | 27 August 2001 | 26 November 2007 | 6 years, 91 days | Labor | Martin | ||
Ted Egan (2003–2007) | |||||||||
2005 | |||||||||
Tom Pauling (2007–2011) | |||||||||
8 | Paul Henderson MLA for Wanguri (born 1962) | — | 26 November 2007 | 28 August 2012 | 4 years, 276 days | Labor | Henderson | ||
2008 | |||||||||
Sally Thomas (2011–2014) | |||||||||
9 | Terry Mills MLA for Blain (born 1957) | 2012 | 29 August 2012 | 13 March 2013 | 196 days | Country Liberal | Mills | ||
10 | Adam Giles MLA for Braitling (born 1973) | — | 14 March 2013 | 30 August 2016 | 3 years, 169 days | Country Liberal | Giles | ||
John Hardy (2014–2017) | |||||||||
11 | Michael Gunner MLA for Fannie Bay (born 1976) | 2016 | 31 August 2016 | 13 May 2022 | 5 years, 255 days | Labor | Gunner | ||
Vicki O'Halloran (2017–2023) | |||||||||
2020 | |||||||||
12 | Natasha Fyles MLA for Nightcliff (born 1978) | — | 13 May 2022 | 21 December 2023 | 1 year, 222 days | Labor | Fyles | ||
Hugh Heggie (since 2023) | |||||||||
13 | Eva Lawler MLA for Drysdale | — | 21 December 2023 | Incumbent | 119 days | Labor | Lawler |
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.
Ian Lindsay Tuxworth was an Australian politician, who was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory of Australia from 17 October 1984 until his resignation on 10 May 1986.
Marshall Bruce Perron is a former Australian politician, who was a Country Liberal Party member of the Legislative Assembly in the Northern Territory from the formation of the Assembly in 1974 until his resignation in 1995. For the last 20 years, save for an 11-month break in 1986 and 1987, he served as a cabinet minister or its equivalent. From 1988 to 1995, Perron was the Chief Minister 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.
The Government of the Northern Territory of Australia, also referred to as the Northern Territory Government, the Government of the Northern Territory or simply the NT Government, is the executive branch of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory was formed in 1978 with the granting of self-government to the Territory. The Northern Territory is a territory of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Constitution of Australia and Commonwealth law regulates its relationship with the Commonwealth.
Paul Anthony Edward Everingham is a former Australian politician who was the head of government of the Northern Territory of Australia from 1977 to 1984, serving as the second and last Majority Leader (1977–1978) and the first Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 1978 to 1984. He represented the northern Darwin seat of Jingili in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1974 to 1984. He was then elected to the federal House of Representatives, representing the Northern Territory between 1984 and 1987.
A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 13 August 1977. Though the election was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP), the party lost five of its seven executive members. Surprisingly, one of the casualties was Majority Leader Goff Letts—one of the few instances where a major-party leader at any level in Australia lost his own seat. The election also marked the emergence of the Labor Party as a parliamentary force: Labor took six seats in the new assembly.
Godfrey Alan "Goff" Letts was the Majority Leader of the Northern Territory of Australia from 1974 to 1977.
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.
Michael Patrick Francis Gunner is an Australian former politician who was the 11th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2016 to 2022. He was a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, holding the seat of Fannie Bay in Darwin from the retirement of then Chief Minister Clare Martin at the 2008 election until his resignation in July 2022.
Delia Phoebe Lawrie is an Australian politician. She was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2016, representing the electorate of Karama. She was a Labor member from 2001 to 2015, and served as party leader and Leader of the Opposition from 2012 to 2015. On 10 October 2015, following her loss of Labor preselection to recontest her seat at the 2016 election, she resigned from the party to sit as an independent.
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.
Natasha Kate Fyles is an Australian politician and former teacher who served as the 12th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and Minister for Health. She was the leader of the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from May 2022 until her resignation in December 2023. She is a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the division of Nightcliff, a position she has held since August 2012. She previously served as 22nd attorney-general of the Northern Territory and the territory’s minister for Justice from 2016 to 2020.
Eva Dina Lawler is an Australian politician who is currently the 13th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from the 21st of December 2023. She is a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2016, representing the electorate of Drysdale. She was Minister for Education in the Gunner Ministry from September 2016 until June 2018, when she was made Minister for Environment and Natural Resources and Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics.
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.
The Letts Executive was the executive of Majority Leader of the Northern Territory Goff Letts, who led the Northern Territory from the implementation of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in 1974 until his defeat in his own seat at the 1977 election. It was the first ministry to come from the Legislative Assembly. He was the only head of government of the Northern Territory not to assume the title of Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, as self-government was not granted until 1978. His governments did not have anywhere near the range of powers available to Territory governments after the granting of self-government, but nevertheless fulfilled similar functions. Letts' successor as Majority Leader and his one-time deputy, Paul Everingham, became the first Chief Minister in 1978.
The Territory Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch) and commonly referred to simply as Territory Labor, is the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party. It is the current ruling party in the Northern Territory and is led by Natasha Fyles, who has concurrently served as chief minister of the Northern Territory since 2022, and previously Michael Gunner from 2016 to 2022.
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.
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.