Nice article on CM Gunner24 Apr 2018 05:37
The Chief Minister has shown he isn�t afraid to make tough decisions
MATT CUNNINGHAM, NT News
April 20, 2018 10:00am
Subscriber only
MICHAEL Gunner is a good bloke. That�s not just my opinion; it�s shared by pretty much everyone who�s dealt with him � Labor, CLP or otherwise - in his decade in politics in the Northern Territory.
The question about Gunner � the first NT-born chief minister � has always been whether this happy-go-lucky local boy would make a good leader. Would he have the strength to make tough decisions?
Would he have the courage to stand up to the vested interests trying to pull his strings? Would he continue the pro-business mantra set down by his Labor predecessors Clare Martin and Paul Henderson, or succumb to the national trend � thus far avoided in the NT - that has seen Labor Governments pulled away from the labourers they once existed to represent and into a race to the left with the Greens and their obsessions with trivialities and identity politics?
This week we found out. Gunner wasn�t wearing a tie when he walked into Parliament House�s Elsey Room � alone - for the most important press conference of his career.
The symbolism was clear.
This was a Territorian making a decision in the best interests of Territorians. In a room reserved for the most serious announcements, he delivered his Government�s verdict on fracking. The Government would lift the moratorium and implement all 135 recommendations from Justice Rachel Pepper�s independent review.
From the outset Gunner had promised to be guided by that review, but this was more than a promise kept.
In public and private Gunner has been subjected to a relentless campaign to ban fracking. He�s been bullied, harassed, intimidated � and even threatened with violence � but he�s held his nerve.
For Gunner this fight started before he became chief minister. Two years ago, at NT Labor�s 2016 conference, he faced huge pressure from the Left, the CFMEU and the MUA to make a permanent ban Labor Party policy.
The easy route would have been to cave in. The CLP was in such a mess that the upcoming election was already decided. Gunner could have banned fracking, kept his factional enemies and the powerful unions on side, and still romped home in the August 2016 poll.
Instead he opted for a compromise, negotiating his way out of a position that would have crippled his chief ministership before it began.
That compromise was a moratorium while the independent scientific inquiry was undertaken.
cont.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
