Territory Alliance

Territory Alliance is 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 originally been a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP).[1] 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 attain official opposition status.

Territory Alliance
LeaderTerry Mills
Deputy LeaderRobyn Lambley
FoundedNovember 2019 (2019-11)
IdeologyRegionalism
Political positionCentre
Big tent
Seats in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
3 / 25
Website
https://www.territory-alliance.org/

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.[2] 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.[3]

On 18 March, 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.[4]

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).[2][5]

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.[6][7]

Incumbent MLA Jeff Collins, who joined the Alliance in March 2020, was originally 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.[5] Another former Labor MLA, Ken Parish, joined the party in early 2020.[8]

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.[9] 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).[10]

References
  1. "Party time for Terry's Territory Alliance as election tilt looms large". Northern Territory News. 16 November 2019.
  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.
  3. "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.
  4. "Robyn Lambley to join Territory Alliance". Alice Springs News. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  5. 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.
  6. Breen, Jacqueline (2019-11-26). "Territory Alliance nominates 'law and order' and 'youth crime' as key election focus issues". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  7. "Far-right tinge to party line-up". Northern Territory News. 26 November 2019.
  8. "Terry Mills with former Labor MLA, Ken Parish". Territory Alliance. 22 February 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  9. "Klose to contest by-election for Alliance". Northern Territory News. 2 December 2019.
  10. "Johnston by-election". ABC News. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
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