Lia Finocchiaro has been elected the first female Country Liberal Party (CLP) chief minister of the Northern Territory in a sweeping win over the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP) bid at a third consecutive term in government.
In her victory speech on Saturday, Finocchiaro said the election result was a “victory for hope and opportunity for every single Territorian”.
“It is an absolute honour and a privilege to stand here before you as the first female Country Liberal Party chief minister of the Northern Territory”.
“The territory of tomorrow will be better than the territory of today.”
With a swing of 12.3 per cent to the CLP on a two-party preferred basis, the ALP gained just 25.9 per cent of the primary vote.
Territory Labor had been in power 19 of the past 23 years in the Northern Territory.
With the CLP’s win, the chief minister, Eva Lawler has been ousted in her seat of Drysdale. Now, Labor will go to work finding a new leader.
“Every day I drove into work I would pinch myself and say this is an honour,” Lawler said.
“I would have liked longer … It is now up to Labor in opposition to rebuild and look forward, but also to listen to what Territorians have said. That is politics.”
Who is Lia Finocchiaro?
Born in the Northern Territory, Finocchiaro grew up in the satellite city of Palmerston, south of Darwin. Her grandparents migrated to Australia from Italy, and she noted this in her election victory speech.
“As a born-and-bred second-generation territory kid– the granddaughter of Italian migrants– I grew up living an iconic territory childhood, hunting, camping, fishing and playing outside,” she said.
“I always knew the territory was a special place, and I was lucky to be a Territorian.”
During her campaign for chief minister, Finocchiaro said the reason she wanted the role was related to childhood as she knows “how powerful it is to grow up free in an adventurous childhood where being Territorian makes you feel so proud, so invincible that you literally growing up knowing you can be anything you want to be.”
“And with every breath in my body, I will fight to hold onto that Territory.”
Finocchiaro, 39, now has two children, Isla and Isaac, with her husband, Sam Burke, the son of former CLP chief minister Denis Burke.
A former lawyer, Finocchiaro was only 27 when she was first elected to parliament in 2012. This made her the youngest elected member in the territory’s political history.
That same year, she was a territory finalist in the Young Australian of the Year awards, where she was recognised for her advocacy on fairer pay and representation for women.
A year later, at age 28, she became the youngest minister in NT history, when then-chief minister Terry Mills gave her several portfolios.
In early 2020, Finocchiaro became the opposition leader when CLP member Gary Higgins resigned. This was following a rocky period for the CLP who had only two seats in the 2016 election due to a string of scandals and fighting within the party.
At the general election in 2020, the CLP picked up another six seats but lost three by-elections in the following term. The party’s landslide victory on Saturday night has now allowed then to pick up key seats in Darwin’s northern suburbs and in Palmerston.
Finocchiaro, said the hard work on behalf of all Territorians would begin on Sunday at “the start of a new day and a new chapter”.
Tackling crime in the Northern Territory
The CLP has said it will get to work tackling crime after its resounding win in the Northern Territory election.
Finocchiaro said her party would get to work on delivering its plan to reduce crime, rebuild the economy and restore “our lifestyle.”
She has promised to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 during her first week of parliament, as well as introduce new powers for police to deal with public drinking and knife crime.
“I will meet with the police commissioner and the chief executive of the chief minister and cabinet to start the work that must immediately begin to make the territory safe,” she said in her acceptance speech.
“We will do whatever it takes. We will do whatever it takes to restore community safety,” Finocchiaro said.
“And we will not let you down.”