Editing Northern Territory Legislative Assembly (section)

==History==
When [[South Australia]] turned the Northern Territory over to Commonwealth hands in 1911, the federal government ran the Territory directly through the relevant minister, and the only elective body in the Territory was the Darwin town council. The territory was split in 1927 into the territories of [[North Australia (territory)|North Australia]] and [[Central Australia (territory)|Central Australia]], both of which had a four-member Advisory Council that was half-elected and half-appointed; in addition, development of North Australia was left to the locally-based North Australia Commission. These changes were reversed in 1931, with the Northern Territory reformed and the federal government resuming control until the 1947 formation of the [[Northern Territory Legislative Council]], which was half-elected and half-appointed.

[[File:The first Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, 1976.jpg|thumb|The first Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, 1976|left]]
The Legislative Assembly was created in 1974 by the ''Northern Territory (Administration) Act 1974'' (Cth), an act of the Australian federal parliament, which was a fully-elected body in contrast to the Legislative Council. The Legislative Assembly consisted of 19 fully elected members, but initially lacked significant powers, until limited self-government was granted in 1978.<ref>''Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978'' (Cth)</ref> For the [[1983 Northern Territory general election|1983 election]], the number of members was increased to 25.<ref>Section 138B of the ''Electoral Amendment Act 1982'' (No.73 of 1982)</ref>

From its inception prior to the [[1974 Northern Territory general election|1974 election]] until the [[2001 Northern Territory general election|2001 election]], the Legislative Assembly was controlled by the conservative [[Country Liberal Party]], which since 1979 has been affiliated with the federal [[Liberal Party of Australia|Liberal]]–[[National Party of Australia|National]] [[Coalition (Australia)|coalition]]. In 2001, the [[Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch)|Labor Party]] won a one-seat majority, and [[Clare Martin]] became the Territory's first Labor and first female chief minister. At the [[2005 Northern Territory general election|2005 election]], the Martin-led ALP won 19 seats to the CLP's 4; however, Martin resigned in 2007 and was succeeded by [[Paul Henderson (politician)|Paul Henderson]] as ALP leader, and retained government with another one-seat majority at the [[2008 Northern Territory general election|2008 election]]. Labor lost its majority when [[Marion Scrymgour]] went to the cross-benches as an independent. She re-joined the party after [[Alison Anderson]] left the party to sit as an independent. Anderson joined the CLP in September 2011. The [[2012 Northern Territory general election|2012 election]] resulted in the return of the CLP under [[Terry Mills (Australian politician)|Terry Mills]] with 16 seats to the ALP's 8. Mills resigned in 2013 and [[Adam Giles]] became CLP leader. The CLP was reduced to a one-seat majority in 2014 when three CLP members defected to join the [[Palmer United Party]]. One defector later rejoined the CLP. After further defections, CLP numbers fell to [[minority government]] status in July 2015.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-20/kezia-purick-quits-country-liberals-nt-government-loses-majority/6632916 Kezia Purick quits Northern Territory Country Liberals party, Government loses one-seat majority: ABC 20 July 2015]</ref><ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-20/adam-giles-wants-early-election-after-kezia-purick-leaves-clp/6634496 Adam Giles would 'love to go to an early election' after Kezia Purick resigns Country Liberals party: ABC 20 July 2015]</ref>

The [[2016 Northern Territory general election|2016 election]] saw a landslide CLP defeat which brought Labor to power led by Chief Minister [[Michael Gunner]]. The position of [[Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly]] was held by CLP-turned-independent MP [[Kezia Purick]] from 23 October 2012. Despite Labor's massive majority following the 2016 election, the incoming Labor government re-appointed Purick as Speaker.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-11/northern-territory-government-announces-new-cabinet/7834466 NT Labor Government announces female-dominated Cabinet: ABC 11 September 2016]</ref> Following an ICAC investigation into allegations [[Kezia Purick]] had engaged in corrupt conduct, she resigned, and the role was filled by [[Chansey Paech]] on 23 June 2020. Following the 2020 election, Paech resigned in September 2020 to serve as a minister in Gunner's cabinet, and [[Ngaree Ah Kit]] was acting speaker for a month until her substantive election on 20 October 2020.