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.
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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.