Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles insists the escalating scandal that has claimed the resignation of his deputy is "a hiccup".
Mr Giles on Monday night announced Business Minister Peter Styles had been elected new deputy replacing Willem Westra van Holthe who resigned 24 hours earlier amid allegations of questionable personal business dealings with a Vietnamese company he was also negotiating with for the government.
"We've had some challenges in the past. Last week was a slight hiccup on the scale of things, tomorrow's a new day and we're just getting on with things," Mr Giles told reporters.
He said he became aware of Mr Westra van Holthe's dealings with CT Group before parliament resumed last week, "roughly speaking".
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Mr Styles is the sixth deputy for the Country Liberals since they were elected in August 2012, compared to the same number in 23 years for the first CLP government which ruled from self-government in 1978 until 2001.
During its 11-year reign until 2012, Labor had three deputies.
Mr Giles said Mr Styles would "absolutely" be his last deputy during this term.
"No one really wanted to see Willem go. Clearly, there's been a breach in the ministerial guidelines and code of conduct and Willem stepped aside," he said.
But he left the door open for Mr Westra van Holthe's return to cabinet: "I expect he'll be knocking on the door of ministry post-election on August 27," he said.
It was reported Environment Minister Gary Higgins also contested the vote and narrowly lost but Mr Giles said Mr Styles had unanimous support.
Despite the extraordinarily turbulent term the CLP government has so far weathered, Mr Giles talked up its successes and said the departure of five MPs had left the now-minority government stronger.
"We've got the holy grail, if you can call it that, in the NT with low unemployment, high economic growth and low inflation," he said.
"Any state or territory in the nation would be happy to have those things. We've got them, what we need to do is just continue to clean up some of the ugliness but also keep delivering on results."
Attorney-General John Elferink said Mr Styles was a "dedicated, focused, driven individual" who worked hard for the people of the NT.
Mr Styles thanked his colleagues for having confidence in him, and said his primary role was to support Mr Giles.
Mr Giles will have a "minor reshuffle" in the next 24 hours to reassign Mr Westra van Holthe's four portfolios.
