Lynne Michele Walker (born 19 June 1962) is an Australian politician. She was a
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 la ...
member of 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 f ...
from 2008 to 2016, representing the seat of
Nhulunbuy
Walker was an outspoken critic of the former Country Liberals' government's management of the closure at the Rio Tinto aluminum refinery.
On 23 April 2015, Walker was installed as deputy leader under
Michael Gunner, and hence Deputy Leader of the Opposition, following the Northern Territory leadership challenge.
Walker was widely tipped to become
Deputy Chief Minister
A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...
following the
2016 Territory election. Not only was Labor been far ahead of the governing CLP in polling, but Walker sat on a seemingly insurmountable majority of 13.7 percent. However, in a major upset, while Labor won the third-biggest majority in Territory history, Walker was defeated by independent candidate and indigenous activist
Yingiya Mark Guyula by eight votes. She suffered a swing of just under eight percent on the first count, and ultimately lost after CLP preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Guyula. The result, which was not known for days, saw Walker become the only Labor incumbent to be defeated at the election.
Walker sought to return to the legislature for Labor at the
2020 election, standing in
Mulka, a reconfigured version of her old seat. She lost election to incumbent
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
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* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
Yingiya Mark Guyula.
References
1962 births
Living people
Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Australian Labor Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Women members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Flinders University alumni
21st-century Australian politicians
21st-century Australian women politicians
Women deputy opposition leaders
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