The woman who wants to replace Nova Peris in the Senate presided over the "worst child protection system" the Northern Territory has ever seen, the chief minister says.
Journalist and former NT politician Malarndirri McCarthy confirmed on Wednesday that she would nominate to replace Nova Peris as the number one pick for Labor's NT Senate ticket after Ms Peris announced she would not recontest her seat after a single term.
Chief Minister Adam Giles told reporters on Wednesday that "it's not up to me to provide character assassinations of former Labor members".
He then said Ms McCarthy, a former NT government minister who held the seat of Arnhem from 2005 until the Country Liberals took power in 2012, "presided over the worst child protection system the Territory has ever seen".
"If Labor want to pick a lady who lives in Sydney, well, I don't think Sydneysiders should be representing the NT," he said.
"But they did it once before with Nova and we're now seeing the worst-performing senator in all of Australia now resigning because she doesn't want to work with the worst-performing opposition leader in Bill Shorten."
