Gary John Higgins (born 26 May 1954) is an Australian former politician. A member 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 ...

, he was elected to represent the seat of

Daly Daly or DALY may refer to: Places Australia * County of Daly, a cadastral division in South Australia * Daly River, Northern Territory, a locality * Electoral division of Daly, an electorate in the Northern Territory * Daly, Northern Territory, ...

in the

Northern Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method fo ...

at the 2012 election. After the 2016 election, the CLP was reduced to only two members in the Legislative Assembly, with Higgins becoming party leader and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

. Following health problems, he resigned both positions in favour of

Lia Finocchiaro Lia Emele Finocchiaro (; born 20 September 1984) is an Australian politician. She has been a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the seat of Electoral division of Spillett, Spillett since her 2016 Nor ...

in February 2020, and retired at the 2020 election.

Early life

Higgins moved to the Northern Territory in 1986, and was employed in the Territory public service, where he became Director of Corporate Services at the Attorney-General's office. After leaving the public service, he bought the Daly River Mango Farm, a mango orchard and tourist park on the Daly River.

Parliament

He joined the

Giles Ministry The Giles Ministry was the ministry of the tenth Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles. It came into operation on 14 March 2013, following the replacement of Terry Mills as Chief Minister and leader of the Country Liberal Party by ...

in February 2015, becoming Minister for Sport and Recreation, Minister for Senior Territorians, Minister for the Environment, and Minister assisting the Minister for Arts and Museums.

CLP leadership

The CLP was defeated in a landslide at the 2016 election. Higgins was one of only two CLP candidates to be elected, and the only surviving member of the previous cabinet. Even before it was confirmed that former Chief 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 ...

had lost his own seat, it was announced on 2 September 2016 that Higgins would succeed him as CLP leader, and hence

Opposition Leader The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

. The only other CLP member in the legislature,

, became his deputy. Higgins faced the task of rebuilding a party that had just suffered one of the worst defeats of a sitting government at the state or territory level in Australia. Although the CLP had fewer members than the independents, the CLP was recognised as the Official Opposition after the Solicitor-General advised that the five independents could not realistically form an alternative government. Although the CLP was well short of the numbers for official status in the chamber, the new Labor government of

Michael Gunner Michael Patrick Francis Gunner (born 6 January 1976) is an Australian politician and was the 11th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2016 to 2022. He is a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, having held his se ...

promised that the CLP would be properly resourced as an opposition. As they were the only opposition members of the legislature, Higgins and Finocchiaro divided all shadow portfolios between them. Higgins served as Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics, Housing and Community Development, Tourism and Culture, Environment and Natural Resources, Public Employment, Corporate and Information Services, Primary Industry and Resources and Northern Australia.Shadow Ministry
for 13th Legislative Assembly On 20 January 2020, Higgins announced his resignation as leader of the Country Liberals, citing health problems, and confirmed he would retire from the Legislative Assembly at the next Territory election in August 2020. His deputy, and the only other Country Liberal MP in the assembly,

succeeded him as party and opposition leader on 1 February.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Gary 1954 births Living people Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Country Liberal Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Leaders of the Opposition in the Northern Territory Australian public servants Australian orchardists 21st-century Australian politicians