Friday’s NT Legislative Assembly debate will probably be more peaceful than proceedings in Taiwan’s parliament, but you never know … |
This Friday 14 August will witness the NT Legislative Assembly debating a “no confidence” motion in the current Henderson Labor government (see my previous post for the background). Starting at around 10:30 am CST I will be part of a panel broadcasting and commenting live on the debate on ABC Darwin local radio. The panel will be chaired by ABC morning presenter Leon Compton. Apart from yours truly, panel members will include veteran CLP apparatchik Peter Murphy (senior adviser to 5 successive Chief Ministers) and ABC TV Stateline compere Melinda James.
Troppo readers interested in following political history as it’s being made can listen live by going to the ABC Darwin website and then clicking on “launch player” under the heading “streaming now”. I’ll also be on another panel on Stateline itself on Friday evening. However at this stage it’s looking like Independent Gerry Wood, whose vote will probably determine whether the government stands or falls, will be one of the last speakers in the debate. If he maintains his current stance (that he wants to listen to the parliamentary debate before finally making up his mind), then we may not know the outcome until close to midnight. I’m told that current negotiations between Labor and the CLP have resulted in a tentative agreement that both party leaders will have 40 minutes to speak and everyone else 30 minutes each. Indications are that every one of the 25 MLAs will speak. That suggests a debate running almost 13 hours.