After a crushing defeat in the recent election, Northern Territory Labor has appointed the first Aboriginal woman to lead a major party in the nation’s history.
Nunggubuyu woman Selena Uibo, the Member for Arnhem, has taken up the top job alongside an almost entirely Aboriginal caucus.
“I’m very proud … the Territory is one third Aboriginal population … that make up the width and the breadth of the Territory,” she said.
“Being the first is an honour and a privilege and it's quite exciting, not being naive to the huge challenge that is ahead.”
Labor has appointed Yaegl man Dheran Young as the deputy opposition leader.
After an electoral landslide to the Country Liberal Party, the two are likely to lead a small team of five, which will include former Attorney-General Chansey Paech, an Arrente, Arabana and Gurindji man.
Former Chief Minister Natasha Fyles' electorate is being recounted.
Ms Uibo was first elected in 2016 and represents the bush electorate that takes in remote sections of the Territory north and west of Katherine.
The party will now undergo a crucial post-mortem of its election campaign in conjunction with the federal Labor Party, keen to understand possible pressure points before their own election, due by next year.
"We always knew that trying to go for a third term of government was going to be difficult," Ms Uibo said.
New Chief Minsiter Lia Finocchiaro was in Canberra on Wednesday for the national cabinet meeting and said she would advocate for more anti-violence funding in the NT, where domestic assault rates are five times higher than in other jurisdictions and the domestic homicide rate is seven times higher.
Just 10 days ago another Aboriginal woman was killed in an alleged domestic violence attack in Darwin's northern suburbs, after police failed to respond to a welfare call nine hours before her death.
Ms Finocchiaro said that death had “hit Territorians hard” and she had met with NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy about the tragedy.
“Legislative change around alcohol, perpetrators being out on bail and electronic monitoring is a big part of our plan to make sure we're putting the rights of victims above the rights of offenders,” she said.
Ms Finocchiaro also congratulated Labor for appointing Ms Uibo as leader.
“They have a small team, but we've all been there,” she said.
The CLP has an overwhelming majority in parliament, claiming up to 17 of the 25 seats in the recent Territory election.
The new government has promised to wind back a number of justice reforms introduced by the previous Labor administration, despite warnings from First Nations, human rights, legal and children's advocates.
The new chief minister said the opposition needed to do a “lot of soul searching” before parliament sits in October, when she plans to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 and introduce bail amendments.
Independent politician Yingiya Mark Guyula has been re-elected with an increased majority to the seat of Mulka for a third term.
