Due to all the antics going on in the chaotic Northern Territory Country Liberal Party government , headed today by Adam Giles ( who knows what the morrow will bring in the game of musical chairs ? ) , the regime is firmly regarded locally, increasingly elsewhere in the nation and in the corridors of power in the United States, as some kind of Banana Republic.
While Turnbull was in Darwin receiving the Crocodile Dundee treatment in the Northern Territory News he made inadequate statements about the CLP signing over the port of Darwin to the Chinese , an incredible act which upset President Obama , Chief Minister Giles was bunkered down in far away Alice Springs. [Readers of this blog will recall that on the subject of the port 99 year lease, we pointed out that like Queen Victoria , the Pentagon was not amused , before it became a hot issue .]
Strange indeed was the reaction by the now federal Treasurer , Scott Morrison, who made a big thing about border security in another life/portfolio, saying the NT Government was responsible for leasing the port to the Chinese and that it was not the act of the vigilant feds. Excuse the inexcusable honourable Chinese schoolboy pun, on the ABC Insiders , Clive Palmer appeared to put a clacker up the clacker of the Turnbull government when he said it was absurd that the port had been handed over to the Chinese and that you could not buy a port in China .
Add to the Territory explosive mix the latest shemozzle over the CLP move to oust the redoubtable NT Legislative Assembly Speaker , Kezia Purick , a feisty CLP member who recently threatened ousted federal Defence Minister Kevin Andrews with painful treatment involving a ring used in animal castration , followed by a declaration by NT Attorney-General , Johan (John) Elferink Minister , naturally variously nicknamed The Elf and The Fink , that he will not stand at the next election for Port Darwin gives the impression that the government is imploding and is on the verge of collapse . Last February Elferink led a failed late night bid to oust Giles in a farce which seemed like the ancient Indian game of snakes and ladders ...one minute you are up, the next down the bottom.
Recently Elferink said he would like to slap a female member of the Legs. Assembly, which caused an uproar and a call for his resignation . All these incidents , as expected , received a certain amount of coverage in the local media. However, our reporter was surprised that the media has failed to pick up the fact that a prominent member of 1Territory received death threats, which were reported to the police .
While polls predict the CLP will be hammered at the next election , the ALP is not in the best position to benefit from this situation as its deposed leader, Delia Lawrie , is going to stand as an independent in her seat , and almost certainly win. Unlikely ALP candidates have been suggested for several seats.
Undoubtedly benefiting from the two major party tension and uncertainty is the brand new 1Territory ( One Territory ) Party, a non-aligned,Territory-centric group. Little Darwin has received intriguing info, not all favourable , about the new chums on the Top End political scene , so commissioned a correspondent to put an ear to the ground in the Top End , loiter about dingy drinking establishments and noisy coffee dens, ask questions , and file a report , with a warning to go easy on the expense account .
First off , our investigative reporter said PM Malcolm Turnbull was obviously misquoted when the media said he described Darwin as the most dynamic place in Australia . What he actually said was that the Darwin government situation is dynamite, with a spluttering , Pink Panther " bome"on the premises .
While Turnbull was in Darwin receiving the Crocodile Dundee treatment in the Northern Territory News he made inadequate statements about the CLP signing over the port of Darwin to the Chinese , an incredible act which upset President Obama , Chief Minister Giles was bunkered down in far away Alice Springs. [Readers of this blog will recall that on the subject of the port 99 year lease, we pointed out that like Queen Victoria , the Pentagon was not amused , before it became a hot issue .]
Strange indeed was the reaction by the now federal Treasurer , Scott Morrison, who made a big thing about border security in another life/portfolio, saying the NT Government was responsible for leasing the port to the Chinese and that it was not the act of the vigilant feds. Excuse the inexcusable honourable Chinese schoolboy pun, on the ABC Insiders , Clive Palmer appeared to put a clacker up the clacker of the Turnbull government when he said it was absurd that the port had been handed over to the Chinese and that you could not buy a port in China .
Add to the Territory explosive mix the latest shemozzle over the CLP move to oust the redoubtable NT Legislative Assembly Speaker , Kezia Purick , a feisty CLP member who recently threatened ousted federal Defence Minister Kevin Andrews with painful treatment involving a ring used in animal castration , followed by a declaration by NT Attorney-General , Johan (John) Elferink Minister , naturally variously nicknamed The Elf and The Fink , that he will not stand at the next election for Port Darwin gives the impression that the government is imploding and is on the verge of collapse . Last February Elferink led a failed late night bid to oust Giles in a farce which seemed like the ancient Indian game of snakes and ladders ...one minute you are up, the next down the bottom.
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The game they play in Territory politics.
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Recently Elferink said he would like to slap a female member of the Legs. Assembly, which caused an uproar and a call for his resignation . All these incidents , as expected , received a certain amount of coverage in the local media. However, our reporter was surprised that the media has failed to pick up the fact that a prominent member of 1Territory received death threats, which were reported to the police .
Floating about the town is a claim that Country Liberal Party polling had revealed an 8 percent support for 1Territory , which was quickly said by the CLP and its twitching supporters to indicate there was no great threat to the government. However, this supposed polling is said to had been done before the party was officially formed and accepted by the NT Electoral Commission.Here are other items of scuttlebutt picked up about the new party which has set a dingo loose among the pigeons :
* A person claiming to be from an "oil company "offered financial help to 1Territory and was told no thanks . It was pointed out earlier in Little Darwin, that the party is opposed to fracking and is calling for a moratorium in the NT. At a recent public meeting in Darwin , ALP leader Bill Shorten was asked a number of questions about fracking from 1Territory backers, which later led to a terse exchange with a local ALP member .
*The party's website conducts online polling on a wide range of issues - euthanasia , age care, domestic violence , rehabilitation of mining sites , juvenile crime, the use of RU486, even asks if politicians , like employees in the mining industry and other large companies , should undergo drug and alcohol tests .
* A growing number of organisations and individuals have made contact with the new party.
*The fact that two former CLP presidents , who resigned from the party for various reasons , are leading lights in the nouveau party concerns some.They , however , have stated people with various political leanings , fed up with the present NT government , the local ALP and Canberra control of the two major parties , are rallying to the cause . Our correspondent was told these two high ranking ex CLP members "know where the bodies are buried "- and this could have led to the death threats. We await the next exciting report from our roving reporter with great interest -as does the CIA , an army of Chinese hackers , ASIO , FBI et al .
