Bush neglect led to ALP loss, Mills says

26 Aug 2012, 7:26 pm   -   Source: AAP

The Northern Territory's soon-to-be chief minister Terry Mills says Labor lost the election because it neglected rural voters.

The incoming Northern Territory chief minister who led the Country Liberal Party (CLP) to a crushing election victory over Labor says his party won because Labor ignored the bush.

The landslide win on Saturday ends 11 years of Labor rule in the Top End.

"We held them so hard to the northern suburbs that they focused here and they neglected the bush," CLP leader Terry Mills said on Sunday.

"I think because they had become so preoccupied with their own political survival, they had lost the plot."

Early predictions are the CLP will win 15 or 16 seats in the 25-seat NT Legislative Assembly, Labor will have eight or nine, plus one Independent.

The strongest swings against the ALP were in rural areas, with double digit swings towards CLP candidates and at least two government ministers likely to lose their seats.

Mr Mills said voters realised the ALP cared more for ideas and ideology than for people.

He said federal Labor's handling of the intervention in Aboriginal communities and the temporary ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia played a part in the NT election result.

"Traditional people have not been given proper respect," Mr Mills told journalists.

"They (the ALP) are more interested in some idea than they are actually in people."

He said the decision to ban the live cattle trade, made after the airing of graphic footage showing cattle being mistreated in Indonesian abattoirs, showed no regard for people's hopes and futures.

"When it comes to a decision that results in a banning of live trade, I think that was ideologically driven and politically driven," he said.

On Sunday, Mr Mills met with NT Police Commissioner John McRoberts and told him he wanted changes in the way crime was viewed and responded to in the Territory.

He said he was yet to determine who would be in his cabinet, saying his decisions would be revealed in coming days.

In a break with tradition, outgoing NT chief minister Paul Henderson did not hold a media conference on Sunday and kept a low profile.

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