The voting public have "had a gutful" of political bad behaviour, says the Northern Territory's Chief Minister Adam Giles.
Mr Giles faces a potential wipe-out when the NT returns to the polls for its general election in eight weeks, after the Country Liberals Party clocked big swings against it in both federal NT seats.
Member for Solomon Natasha Griggs suffered an 8.35 per cent swing in favour of Labor's Luke Gosling, with 25 of 28 polling booths counted, although she has not yet conceded her seat.
"I keep my fingers crossed that I could claw back some of the votes ... it's a long shot," she said early on Sunday.
Mr Giles admitted recent turmoil within his government contributed to her loss, particularly last month's sex scandal involving former sports minister Nathan Barrett.
"Look, bloke's got his hand on it in a video. I don't think that's good in a federal election campaign," he told reporters.
"People have had a gutful" of bad behaviour and infighting, he said.
His own first-term government has been turbulent: he rolled his predecessor, withstood a failed leadership challenge, saw 15 cabinet reshuffles and lost his majority in parliament.
When asked how he would prove by August to Territorians that he had changed, Mr Giles said: "Lessons have always been learnt, I carried the brunt of many of these challenges ... the amount of press conferences I've had to come and talk about people's misbehaviour or removing people from the party or people who have left the party, I've had to do that on a regular basis ... at the same time I've been working to deliver outcomes."
The CLP lost Katherine, every booth in Alice Springs but one, and weathered swings in Palmerston and Darwin's rural area.
"There is nobody better than myself to lead the NT," Mr Giles said, saying his government had reduced cost-of-living pressures such as fuel prices, rental prices, and was investing in schools and hospitals.
The CLP won the 2012 election with 16 members but has faced a purge as five are now independent, with four others retiring at the election.
"There's no doubt we've had some rats in the ranks of the CLP for a number of years and we've been working hard to remove those rats ... I'm sure there's still a few around and it's not going to be unjustified for us to try and remove a few in the future," Mr Giles said.
"If it does get ugly again, it'll get ugly and I'll take action, but what I will not do is move away from the stance of building our economy in the NT, investing in health facilities such as Palmerston Hospital and Royal Darwin Hospital, and building more schools and investing in school infrastructure across the Territory."
