Lia Finocchiaro is sworn in as Northern Territory Chief Minister

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The new Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and her deputy have been officially sworn in after the Country Liberal Party’s landslide victory over the weekend.

Transcript

00:00We've just come from a press conference at Government House, which is the building just

00:05behind me there, where the new Chief Minister, Leah Finocchiaro, has been sworn in as Chief

00:10Minister, along with her Deputy, Gerard Maley.

00:13So we haven't really learned a lot about the final make-up of the country Liberal Party's

00:17intended Cabinet after their landslide victory over the weekend, because we've just had an

00:22interim Cabinet sworn in.

00:24So that means Leah Finocchiaro, the Chief Minister, and her Deputy have basically split

00:28the portfolios 50-50.

00:30What we do know is that Leah Finocchiaro will be taking on, in addition to Chief Minister,

00:35the high-profile portfolios of Treasurer, along with Health, Territory Families and

00:40Police Minister, while Gerard Maley, her Deputy, will be taking on Attorney-General and the

00:45Alcohol Policy portfolio as well.

00:48But we didn't really learn heaps from the press conference because Leah Finocchiaro

00:52took about three questions before heading back inside to a social event with the Government

00:58House staff in a celebration of her new swearing-in.

01:02But what we do know is that she's recommitted her commitment to lowering the age of criminal

01:08responsibility from 12 in the Northern Territory back down to 10.

01:12She was, of course, elected on a tough-on-crime portfolio, but that commitment to lower the

01:17age of criminal responsibility back down to 10 in particular has drawn the ire of some

01:22experts who say that it will simply drive up the incarceration rates of Indigenous people

01:27in particular in the Northern Territory.

01:30We have been very clear for a number of years that reducing the age of criminal responsibility

01:35to 10 was a big part of our plan and we will deliver on that in week one of Parliament

01:40as we committed and as Territorians voted us to do.

01:43We've still got two seats that are in doubt, those being Fanny Bay and Knightcliffe.

01:48Both of those seats are in Darwin, where the Labor Party has really faced major losses.

01:53Fanny Bay looks likely that the CLP will get a head in that seat, so Laurie Zio would

02:00be the CLP's member if she gets in there.

02:03That means that the CLP has at least 16, possibly a 17th seat in the Northern Territory's Parliament.

02:10While Labor is ahead in Knightcliffe, Natasha Files, the former Chief Minister, is ahead

02:15there, but she faces a challenge from the Greens.

02:19She does look likely to get a head there.

02:21That means that Labor would have between four to five seats in the Northern Territory Parliament.

02:26All the other seats have been called by the ABC's Chief Elections Analyst, Antony Green.

02:32There are three independents overall that are going to be in the Northern Territory Parliament

02:35in addition to those major parties, those being the North East Arnhem Land candidate

02:43Yingya Gwila, who's been in Parliament since 2016, Robin Lamley, a former CLP member, and

02:49in the northern suburbs of Darwin, Justine Davis, who's got the backing of Teal independent

02:54David Pocock from the ACT.

02:57It does look likely the Greens were hoping to pick up a seat in Knightcliffe, Fanny Bay

03:01or the Alice Springs suburb of Breitling.

03:04That's looking like more and more of an outside chance, so it's possible that the Greens won't

03:08pick up their first ever seat in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly this time around.

03:12We're still waiting to see the final make-up of the Parliament overall.

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