The catastrophic defeat of the Northern Territory government should be ringing alarm bells for the prime minister, federal Labor believes.
The Country Liberals lost government and may have even lost party status in Saturday's NT election.
Labor looks set to claim 18 of the 25 seats in the territory's parliament, reducing the CLP to possibly just two seats - fewer than the number of independents.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said defeated chief minister Adam Giles' description of the election as a landslide and a thumping was accurate.
"It was a massive win for the Labor Party, (Michael) Gunner," Mr Turnbull told ABC TV.
Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten said the "outstanding result" came down to people being sick and tired of disunity.
"Whilst many of the scandals and issues were particular to the Northern Territory, I think there's a lesson for Mr Turnbull, indeed Mr Abbott, Mr Morrison and Julie Bishop too: disunity is death," he told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
"If ... Mr Turnbull sees no lessons about the price of division, well then I don't know what on earth will ever get through to him."
Asked if he saw any lessons in the NT vote, the prime minister said it was overwhelmingly driven by local issues.
"But the point that Adam made about unity, that is a wise insight into politics on every level and generation," he said.
Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne agreed the NT government had suffered a lot of disunity over the past four years and now there was enormous responsibility on Labor MPs in the new parliament
"They have been very untried and untested and unprepared for government. There are a lot of big issues in the Northern Territory," he told Sky News.
Labor frontbencher Ed Husic said the pressure was "well and truly on" to perform or suffer the same fate.
