Mark Paul Michael Turner (born August 1983) is an Australian politician and former

Northern Territory Police The Northern Territory Police Force is the police body that has legal jurisdiction over the Northern Territory of Australia. This police service has 1,537 police members (as at 31 July 2019) made up of 79 senior sergeants, 228 sergeants, 839 con ...

negotiator. He was elected as the

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 ...

member for the

electoral division of Blain Blain is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997 and is named after Adair Blain, the second member for the federal Northern Territory electorate, and the only Australian ...

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 2020 Northern Territory election. Turner was raised in West London, by his mother (a nurse) and father (an officer in the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

). Turner also served in the Metropolitan Police at the

Southall Southall () is a large suburban county of West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

and

Acton Acton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Acton Australia * Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie * Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton Canada ...

Police Stations before transferring to the

Territorial Support Group The Territorial Support Group (TSG) is a Met Operations unit of London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) which specialises in public order policing, amongst other specialist areas. In 2012 it consisted of 793 officers and 29 support staff. Th ...

then emigrating to Australia. He joined the

Western Australia Police The Western Australia Police Force, colloquially WAPOL, provides police services throughout the state of Western Australia, an area of 2.5 million square kilometres, the world's largest non-federated area of jurisdiction, with a population ...

who had been heavily recruiting officers from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and after serving in the

Kimberley Region of Western Australia The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, an ...

he moved across the border joining the

. Turner served in the township of

Katherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and Catherina, other variations are feminine Given name, names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria ...

and several locations around

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

before being transferred to Darwin after an injury on duty for surgery to reconstruct a tendon in his left hand. In September 2019, police negotiators Turner and Linda Farrand were awarded the National Police Bravery Award by the

Police Federation of Australia The Police Federation of Australia (PFA) is a peak police union body that represents the interests of Australian police officers. It was formerly registered under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 on 1 January 1998. The Canberra office was open ...

for preventing a suicide on Darwin Esplanade. Later that month, Turner was preselected by the Labor Party to contest the

at the

2020 Northern Territory general election The 2020 Northern Territory general election was held on 22 August 2020 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament. Members were elected through full preferential instant-runoff voting in ...

in August. In November 2019, it was reported that there was an ongoing workers compensation process progressing with the Police, Fire & Emergency Services for worker's compensation of medical costs incurred from the aforementioned tendon ruptured in the line of duty resulting in Turner losing the use of his hand for a number of years whilst undergoing repeated surgery. At the 2020 election, Turner was elected as the member for Blain, which had previously been held by

Territory Alliance Territory Alliance is an Australian political party based in the Northern Territory. It was founded in 2019 by Terry Mills (Australian politician), Terry Mills, an incumbent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and former Chief Mi ...

leader and former Country Liberal Chief Minister Terry Mills. Turner led the field on the first count, and defeated the CLP candidate collecting about 38% of Mills'

preferences In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision theo ...

despite both Mills and the CLP candidate putting him last on their how to vote cards. He became the first Labor member to hold the seat, which had traditionally been regarded as a CLP stronghold, winning the booths of Bellamack and Rosebery along with the

early voting Early voting, also called advance polling or pre-poll voting, is a convenience voting process by which voters in a public election can vote before a scheduled election day. Early voting can take place remotely, such as via postal voting, or in ...

centre and narrowly losing the suburb of Woodroffe. On 18 February 2021, Turner was expelled from the NT Labor caucus and removed as deputy speaker by chief minister

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 ...

, following allegations he had engaged in illegal activity during a relationship with a Labor Party staffer. Turner denied any illegal activity but acknowledged an inappropriate relationship. Gunner stated that Turner had "lost my trust. He has lost the trust of the caucus. He is no longer a member of Labor's parliamentary team."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Mark 1983 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Australian police officers Metropolitan Police officers English emigrants to Australia 21st-century Australian politicians