Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner will not allow a vote in parliament on whether an alliance of three independents should receive opposition status and replace the Country Liberal Party.
Independents and former Country Liberals Terry Mills and Robyn Lambley, who were once chief minister and deputy, persuaded one of the three other NT independents, Nhulunbuy MLA Yingiya Guyula, to join them.
The so-called "Alliance" outnumbers the CLP, which was left with just two MPs - Gary Higgins and Lia Finocchiaro - out of the NT's 25-member legislative assembly when the scandal-plagued Giles government lost government in 2016.
However Mr Gunner has killed off the move after Speaker and independent Kezia Purick already declined it after receiving a document formalising their coalition.
"(The) Solicitor Generals' advice tabled in the Legislative Assembly in 2016, and again in 2018, unequivocally states that a coalition of independents cannot form the opposition," Mr Gunner said in a statement.
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"We won't be supporting any move which wastes a single moment of parliamentary time on a question that has already been answered.
"The government is completely focused on creating local jobs, cutting crime and delivering generational change."
Solicitor-General Sonia Brownhill had previously written that an opposition needed to be an alternative that hoped to "eventually form government".
A "coalition of independents" was "something of an oxymoron, particularly when applied to the business of governing" she wrote, and had never occurred before in Australia as a government or opposition.
They would therefore have to form a political party.
It is doubtful that a 25-member parliament including 18 Labor MPs would vote for an arguably stronger opposition to face it.
The government is also dealing with internal infighting, with three Labor backbenchers recently banned from caucus and it is unknown how they will operate in parliament.
Mr Mills said his group were not after the trappings and entitlements of opposition, but believed there needed to be more voices in parliament holding the government to account when the budget and economy were in a dire state.
"That has to be a strengthening of democracy, you know what the community is saying about the current government, we do have a weak opposition," he told ABC radio.
