Robyn Jane Lambley (born 26 January 1965) is an Australian politician. She is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

member representing the division of Araluen 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 ...

, having been first elected in a 2010 by-election as 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 ...

. She resigned from the party and contested Araluen as an independent in 2016. She was a member of the

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

between March and October 2020. Between August 2012 and March 2013, Lambley served as the

Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory The deputy chief minister of the Northern Territory is a role in the Government of the Northern Territory assigned to a responsible Minister in the Northern Territory. It has second ranking behind the chief minister of the Northern Territory in ...

and

Treasurer of the Northern Territory The Treasurer of the Northern Territory is the title held by the Northern Territory Government cabinet minister who is responsible for the financial management of Northern Territory's budget sector. List of treasurers of the Northern Territory ...

in the

Mills Ministry The Mills Ministry was the ministry of the ninth Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Terry Mills. It came into operation on 4 September, following the election of the Mills Country Liberal government in the 2012 election. Terry Mills and ...

Early life

Lambley was born in

Grafton, New South Wales Grafton ( Bundjalung-Yugambeh: Gumbin Gir) is a city in the Northern Rivers region of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is located on the Clarence River, approximately by road north-northeast of the state capital Sydney. The closest m ...

, and moved to

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

in 1993 where she was in charge of the hospital's Social Work Department and Aboriginal Liaison and Interpreting Service. In 2000, she and her husband opened the Mad Harry's retail store. In addition to running the business and raising two children, Lambley served as a councillor on the

Alice Springs Town Council The Alice Springs Town Council is a local government area in the Northern Territory. On 1 July 1971, Alice Springs was gazetted as a Municipality with the town council elected on 25 July 1971. It is situated south of Darwin. The council govern ...

, and was deputy mayor of Alice Springs from 2006 to 2007.

Politics

Lambley was preselected by the Country Liberal Party (CLP) to contest the 2010 Araluen by-election following the resignation of

Jodeen Carney Jodeen Terese Carney (born 9 December 1965) is an Australian politician. She was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from September 2001 to September 2010, representing the Alice Springs-based elector ...

, winning the by-election with 68.04% of votes cast. Following the Country Liberal Party's victory in the 2012 territory election, the CLP voted Lambley deputy leader of the party (and

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 ...

to Terry Mills), replacing

Kezia Purick Kezia Dorcas Tibisay Purick (born 12 May 1958) is an Australian politician. She is an Independent (politics), independent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, having held her seat of Electoral division of Goyder, Goyder since ...

who had been deputy leader prior to the election.Sleath, Emma (29 August 2012)
Lambley new deputy leader
ABC Darwin, 29 August 2012. She and Mills were initially sworn in as a two-person government, pending the full ministry's swearing-in on 3 September. At that time, among other portfolios, Lambley became Treasurer. Lambley resigned as the Deputy Chief Minister on 5 March 2013, but stayed on as Treasurer. In a March cabinet reshuffle, Lambley became Minister for Health, a post she retained when Mills was ousted in favour of

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 ...

. Lambley was sacked from cabinet in February 2015 for helping

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 ...

and

John Elferink Johan Wessel Elferink (born 24 September 1965) is an Australian politician. He is a former member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the Country Liberal Party. Early life Elferink was born in the Netherlands and moved to Austr ...

line up support for their attempted party-room coup against Giles. She resigned from the CLP on 17 June 2015 after the release of a proposed redistribution of electoral boundaries that would see her seat of Araluen dismantled. A revised map later saw Araluen retained. Lambley contested Araluen as an independent in the 2016 Territory election. On the primary vote, she finished just a few hundred votes ahead of her replacement as CLP candidate, Stephen Brown. However, she easily defeated Brown on Labor preferences, taking 58 percent of the two-party vote. Lambley often communicates with voters in her district with 'drive thru chats', where she sits by the side of the road and waits for people to pull over and discuss local issues within her community. On 18 March 2020, Lambley joined the

party founded by former chief minister Terry Mills. She also became deputy leader of Territory Alliance, once again becoming Mills' deputy as she had been Deputy Chief Minister to Mills in the previous CLP government. Lambley was the only member of Territory Alliance to be re-elected in the 2020 general election, narrowly retaining her seat despite an 8.1% swing against her. In October 2020, Lambley confirmed she had resigned from the party and would once again represent Araluen as an independent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambley, Robyn 1965 births Living people Deputy Chief Ministers of the Northern Territory Treasurers of the Northern Territory Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Country Liberal Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Independent members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Territory Alliance members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Australian social workers Northern Territory local councillors People from Grafton, New South Wales 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Women members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Women local councillors in Australia