Former Northern Territory Labor Leader Delia Lawrie has lost an appeal against a ruling that she was treated fairly during an inquiry into a controversial deal with Unions NT.
The inquiry found that Ms Lawrie had improperly involved herself in a decision to grant Unions NT a 10-year, no-rent lease over the $3 million Stella Maris site in Darwin in 2012.
The decision was made by the Labor government just weeks before it entered caretaker mode prior to the August territory election.
Ms Lawrie unsuccessfully challenged the fairness of the inquiry in the Supreme Court, which ruled that she had been treated fairly.
The Court of Criminal Appeal on Thursday upheld that ruling and also found that the judge had not been biased when he ruled on the question of costs.
However, the appeal court will revisit the entire question of costs after taking submissions from the parties.
In her earlier Supreme Court action, Ms Lawrie did not question the correctness of the criticisms made by commissioner Joh Lawler, but challenged the fairness of his inquiry and sought an order that his entire report be quashed.
She argued that Mr Lawler did not give her adequate warning of the criticisms that might be made of her personally as opposed to criticisms of the process that was followed in the controversial deal.
Ms Lawrie said she had not been given a reasonable chance to answer the criticisms ultimately made of her.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Southwood found that Ms Lawrie knew the issues before the inquiry, the criticisms that might be made and had been given a fair opportunity to respond.
In reasons handed down on Thursday the Court of Appeal said the conclusions reached by Mr Lawler would "appeal to some and not to others" but there had been no reason for him to spell them out to Ms Lawrie beforehand.
The judges also found that Ms Lawrie had no entitlement to have proposed findings or conclusions disclosed to her.
"Ms Lawrie has not shown that she lost an opportunity to put forward any information or argument, or suffered any detriment as a result of the relevant circumstances," the appeal judges said.
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