HAYLEY SORENSEN

lished in last week’s Sunday Territorian, Gunner referenced the CLP five times.

We get it; the CLP was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad government.

But while Labor is quick to remind us of the CLP’s failings, it has forgotten or ignored the lessons from those failings.

Personal conflicts and self interest have again been allowed to get in the way of governance.

This coming week is the first parliamentary sittings since Gunner Marie Kondo-ed the rebel trio of Ken Vowles, Scott McConnell and Jeff Collins from caucus.

And while Gunner and his staff are keen to frame Vowles and company as disagreeable rogues whose insubordination could no longer be tolerated, as leader, Gunner should take the biggest portion of the blame for their indiscipline.

The fact the ill-feeling was allowed to fester among discontented MLAs for so long to the point it boiled over as it did is an indictment of his leadership capabilities.

Much of the current dramas probably would have been avoided with a beer and a frank conversation but by shutting down divergent views and refusing to engage, he has dug himself a hole of discord.

This Government is as selfinterested as Giles’s before it.

The prize isn’t the chief ministership or a dragon fruit

“Gunner and his advisers are convinced stability will help them stay for a second term”

farm for individuals anymore; this time it’s simply re-election to another term of government for as many as can cling on.

Gunner and his advisers are convinced stability will help them stay for a second term.

He said as much last month when he announced Paul Kirby as Vowles’s Cabinet replacement. With two reshuffles, his was the most stable ministry since Marshall Perron in the 90s, he said, as justification for keeping his “chaotic CLP” line in the rotation of slogans. But keeping the same people in the same jobs for the sake of stability doesn’t mean good governance.

That attitude has allowed underperforming ministers to continue in their roles, and it’s Territorians who suffer for it.

Gunner would do well to remember Giles’s advice.