Delia Lawrie
|
Delia Lawrie MLA |
|
|---|---|
| Leader of the Opposition (Northern Territory) | |
|
In office 29 August 2012 – 20 April 2015 |
|
| Deputy | Gerry McCarthy |
| Preceded by | Terry Mills |
| Succeeded by | Michael Gunner |
| Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for Karama |
|
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In office 18 August 2001 – 27 August 2016 |
|
| Preceded by | Mick Palmer |
| Succeeded by | Ngaree Ah Kit |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Delia Phoebe Lawrie 30 July 1966 Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party |
Australian Labor Party (until 2015) Independent (from 2015) |
| Relations | Dawn Lawrie (mother) |
| Children | Three |
| Occupation | Journalist |
Delia Phoebe Lawrie (born 30 July 1966) is an Australian politician. She was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2016, representing the electorate of Karama. She was a Labor member from 2001 to 2015, and served as their leader and Leader of the Opposition from 2012 to 2015. On 10 October 2015, following her loss of Labor preselection to recontest her seat at the 2016 election, she resigned from the party to sit as an independent.
Born in the original Darwin Hospital, she attended Nightcliff Primary and Nightcliff High School. She then worked as a journalist and then as an industrial officer before entering Parliament.
After Territory Labor won the second-largest majority government in the history of the Territory at the 2005 election, Lawrie was promoted to Chief Minister Clare Martin's cabinet as Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister for Sport and Recreation. In a 2006 cabinet reshuffle, she dropped Sport and Recreation and added Lands and Planning, Transport, and Multicultural Affairs.
Martin retired in 2007, and was succeeded by Paul Henderson. Following the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Marion Scrymgour, Henderson named Lawrie deputy leader and hence Deputy Chief Minister. She also served as Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice. Following 25 August 2012 territory elections at which Labor was defeated, Henderson resigned as party leader and Lawrie was elected as his replacement.
In 2012, the Henderson Labor government granted Unions NT a rent-free ten-year lease of the historic Stella Maris site in Darwin. An inquiry into the circumstances of the grant was initiated by the CLP government after the 2012 territory election, and commissioner John Lawler found that the process was not transparent, and that the conduct of Lawrie (then treasurer) and Gerry McCarthy (then lands minister) in relation to the grant was "not accountable or responsible". Lawrie claimed she had been denied procedural fairness, and took the case to the NT Supreme Court, which dismissed her case on 1 April 2015. Attorney-general John Elferink then referred Lawrie to the Northern Territory Police for investigation of "possible breaches of the criminal law". After the failure of the Supreme Court case, the Labor caucus announced it had lost confidence in Lawrie's leadership, and passed a spill motion. Michael Gunner announced that he would challenge Lawrie for the leadership. However, on 19 April, Lawrie announced she was resigning as leader to focus on the legal investigation, leaving Gunner to take the leadership unopposed.
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