DEBATES – Tuesday 26 March 2013 inflicted on Territorians to a person - they find the and calculating way Adam Giles and Dave Tollner actions cowardly and despicable. Why could this have been undermining Terry Mills for years. egomaniac not temper his ego and ambition for a few more days, put it in the box, hold it down and However, it did not quite work out the way they deal with it as a party wing when Terry Mills was wanted or planned. And herein lies the rub; the back on Northern Territory turf so we did not heap problem they have going forward. The plan had insult onto one of our most dear and respected been that big Dave would be Chief Minister and relationships - the nation of Japan and the ‘the little boy’, his mate, would be deputy. That company which has invested $32bn in our nation’s had been the plan - that is the way it has always second largest major project in the Northern been. To their mates in the old guard of the CLP, Territory? that had been the plan. However, something changed. Why do companies invest $32bn? They did so because the Northern Territory, in those days, Those of us who watch politics carefully can pretty provided an environment of certainty. Go back to well pinpoint the time it changed. That was with just over a year ago when chairman Kuroda was that final straw of bad behaviour - Dave throwing asked by media, on the announcement of the final the Cabinet books at Terry Mills’ head inside the investment decision on the Ichthys project, why Cabinet room for Budget Cabinet. That was a they made the decision to bring the project to moment in the CLP when his own colleagues Darwin and invest $32bn. His answer, in his wondered if they could trust a leadership position inimitable style, was clear - certainty. to someone who behaves in such a violent and aggressive manner as that. There was word the We have displayed the opposite of certainty under police were going to be called to that Budget the Country Liberal Party and the way it has Cabinet. That was a moment of change. behaved in seven months. It has been seven However, it does not change the person, does it? months of infighting and brawling - public brawls It does not change the unbridled leadership that spill over to disgusting behaviour and yearning of Dave Tollner. Even on the weekend descriptions of each other. Alison Anderson after his mate became Chief Minister - the job he described the member for Braitling as ‘a little boy’ coveted and had set up over a few years - big and went on a rant about ‘the little boys’ in the Dave was at the footy telling people, ‘Do not party wing. Those little boys now lead the worry, mate, I will be the Chief Minister’. I was Northern Territory - unelected, illegitimate, but gobsmacked when person after person told me now leading the Northern Territory. what you were saying. I thought, ‘Can’t this man contain himself even the weekend after?’ If you look at their actions of just a week, you Unbelievable! shudder. There is the three gigalitre water licence grant to their mate, the CLP candidate for Lingiari. That is why the instability will continue. Apart from There is the action of sacking the Chief Executive the fact there are still clear divisions and factions Officer of Power and Water and the entire Power within the members opposite, they have deep and Water board - a board made up of irreconcilable differences which can be seen after independent industry and business experts - and a seven-hour meeting of tearing each other apart; installing their old mate, John Baskerville, and and by all accounts, shouting and threats being some bureaucrats. made. Accounts have come leaking from many of them. Several leak information. It is unbelievable! These actions will define the style of leadership, You get a pretty detailed description of what goes and hurt Territorians in time to come. They like to on. pretend they are a united team and it is okay Alison Anderson described the Chief Minister as ‘a These actions define people. The knifing of Terry little boy’; they are good mates and friends. Mills while in Japan, cowardly and despicable, will Somehow, Peter Chandler sitting behind Adam define Adam Giles forever because the majority of Giles, who has been a staunch supporter of Terry people do not know who he is. How often am I Mills from get go, is in this parliament because of asked, ‘Adam who? Who is he? What has he the support of Terry Mills and sitting behind Adam done? What is he like? What is he going to be Giles is okay. We have the great mates, Dave like as Chief Minister?’ People do not know him. Tollner and Adam Giles, the team that has been You had to run an advertisement during the undermining Terry Mills’ leadership for years. Wanguri election to explain his name and title. They admitted as much on the 7.30 Report when You knew he did not have the recognition. interviewed by Leigh Sales. Adam Giles admitted However, he is there, ‘the little boy’ as described on the 7.30 Report he had been unhappy for by the member for Namatjira, Alison Anderson … years with the leadership of Terry Mills. Those of us in politics, in this very small Chamber of 25 Ms Lee: Nobody knows you either. people, have heard, watched, and seen the clear 1330 .