leadership spill In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply spill) is a colloquialism referring to a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions (le ...

of the

Country Liberal Party The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP) is a centre-right political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In local politics it operates in a two-party system with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It also contests federal ...

(CLP) in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

occurred on 13 March 2013, less than a year after the Terry Mills-led CLP opposition defeated the

Paul Henderson Paul Garnet Henderson, (born January 28, 1943) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. A left winger, Henderson played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs and Atlanta Flam ...

-led

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

government at the 2012 election, winning 16 of 25 seats. Transport Minister

Adam Giles Adam Graham Giles (born 10 April 1973) is an Australian former politician and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (2013–2016) as well as the former leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the unicameral Northern Territory Par ...

officially replaced Mills as

Chief Minister of the Northern Territory The chief minister of the Northern Territory is the head of government of the Northern Territory. The office is the equivalent of a state premier. When the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was created in 1974, the head of government wa ...

and leader of the CLP on 14 March 2013 with 11 votes to 5. The events occurred while Mills was on a trade mission in Japan. Giles became the first indigenous head of government of an Australian state or territory. Despite Mills being informed of his ousting whilst in Japan, Giles denied that it was a coup. Resulting from the 2015 CLP leadership ballot on 2 February, the possibility of a

confidence motion A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

being put to the assembly was raised by

Willem Westra van Holthe Willem Rudolf Westra van Holthe (born 22 August 1962) is an Australian politician. He was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2008 to 2016, representing the electorate of Katherine. He was Deputy Ch ...

to take over the leadership from Giles, however Giles managed to retain the leadership and continued to govern. Multiple defections saw the CLP reduced to

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...

a few months later. The 2016 election was held on 27 August.Timetable for Future Elections

Antony Green Antony John Green (born 2 March 1960) is an Australian psephologist and commentator. He is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's chief election analyst. Early years and background Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in northern England, Gree ...

ABC 27 May 2013

References

Australian leadership spills 2013 elections in Australia Northern Territory Government March 2013 events in Australia Country Liberal Party leadership spill {{Australia-election-stub

See also

References