CLP pre-selects Steve Brown for Araluen

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p1913brownsteveBy ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Alice Springs Deputy Mayor Steve Brown (pictured) has been pre-selected as the CLP candidate for the party’s blue-ribbon seat of Araluen.
 
He will be battling Robyn Lambley, a former CLP frontbencher who now holds the seat as an independent, and who has made it clear she will be standing again.
 
After the abolition of Greatorex the town will have only two seats, the second one, Braitling, is held by Chief Minister Adam Giles.
 
We understand Bess Price is standing again for rural Stuart, although despite several calls to CLP sources seeking information none has been released as yet.
 
p2298-Warren-Heidi-WilliamsThe Alice Springs News Online understands that Heidi Williams, pictured at her wedding to singer Warren H Williams, has been pre-selected by the CLP for the other bush seat in The Centre, Namatjira.
 
Mr Brown, well-known for his no-holds-barred advocacy for Alice Springs, is one of 10 children of Marion Brown, the sister of Bernie Kilgariff, and Jim Brown. Mr Brown and the late Senator Kilgariff founded the CLP in the 1960s.
 
Steve Brown is the father of nine, including two step-children.
 
He says he’s had support from the pre-selection committee after being on the outer of the Alice Springs branch for “four or five years”: There had been a falling-out over the treatment of former Lingiari contender Leo Abbott.
 
Mr Brown says these issues are now well behind for the branch: “There have been many personnel changes.”
 
He says he will see his task as “completing the job that’s been started,” as the town is having its first sure signs of progress “in 20 years”: A tourism upswing, Melanka on the go, new roads, planning changes, sporting facilities and the Alice to Darwin aviation “milk run” having been revived.
 
“I will not be harping about Robyn but I’ll be picking up the pieces after the devastating state we were in when we kicked the Labor government out,” says Mr Brown.
 
He says like the Namatjira Labor candidate, Cr Chansey Paech, he will be seeking leave from the council when the election is called.
 
However, if that is before March next year – a distinct possibility given that Mr Giles is leading a minority government – any vacancy on council will need to be filled through a by-election, at a cost of some $100,000.
 
“I’m not in it for personal gain,” says Mr Brown, a self-employed electrical contractor for 40 years. “I’ll be pushing like hell for Araluen, Alice Springs and the Territory – in that order.”
 

UPDATE:

Dave Tollner Treasurer and Minister for Mines dumped. Pre-selected members are:-
Adam Giles (Braitling)
Willem Westra van Holthe (Katherine)
Gary Higgins (Daly)
Bess Price (Stuart)
Peter Chandler (Brennan)
Peter Styles (Sanderson)
Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu (Arafura)
Nathan Barrett (Blain)
Lia Finocchiaro (Spillett)
Steven Klose (Johnston)
Ben Hosking (Drysdale)
Stephen Brown (Araluen)
Heidi Williams (Namatjira)
Karen Brown (Fannie Bay)
Tim Dixon (Fong Lim)
Ted Dunstan (Nightcliff)
Giovanna Webb (Casuarina)
Rohan Kelly (Port Darwin)
Ian Gumbula (Arnhem)
Carolyn Reynolds (Goyder)
 
 

25 COMMENTS

  1. Steve left the party in somewhat acrimonious circumstances. Has recently been very positive towards Government. Whispers suggest he campaigned for the most recent Councillors elected to Council. And now he’s completely back in the fold.
    Strange party is the local branch of the CLP.

  2. Erwin: Just to confirm, but has Dave Tollner not been pre-selected for any seat in the coming NT election?

  3. God help us all. All I hear from Steve Brown is that we need to have infrastructure.
    Infrastructure will come if we have industry which we do not have.
    Take out the services to the Indigenous there would be nothing left of this town.
    We need to be grateful to the Indigenous and the government for supporting Alice Springs financially.
    Basically Alice is only a service town for the Indigenous people.

  4. The current CLP government is easily the worst example of a government that the NT and Australia has seen for decades.
    Incompetence, cronyism, [dishonesty] and the list goes on.
    They have dishonoured those who gave them their vote! How can anyone in their right mind defend their performance or have the nerve to go around saying “blame it on Labor, it is Labor’s fault, don’t go back to Labor!”.
    It is time for change!

  5. @ Harold: I know everyone likes a good conspiracy theory however I think you will find if you check back through these pages that I have been an ironed on supporter of conservative politics for many years.
    And none of its been in secret!
    The whispers as you put it about me handing out how to vote cards for candidates I support is no secret either!
    In fact it has attracted much comment in these pages.
    It’s also very difficult being secretive about handing out how to vote cards, considering it requires standing in the open greeting half the population of the town!
    My stance is simply to get behind those that I think will do the best job for the Alice, the same principle applies when it came to putting my hand up for Araluen.
    I, like many of you, have been very concerned that the seat may not be vigorously represented in government so decided that I’d better get off the proverbial and do something about it.
    As for your comment, P Jenkins, clearly you either have an extremely short memory span or your a blow in! The devastation Labor wreaked on our community will take decades to repair!
    In spite of the behavior of some members within its ranks the CLP government has been able to bring about many changes. Law and Order, a huge issue when they were elected, has seen a massive improvement under their guidance!
    Affordability and land availability is improving and will get better.
    There are many employment creating projects on the immediate horizon as a direct result of having a government that supports growth creating development.
    Tourism is on the rise as a direct result of the actions of this government. Our sport facilities have and are receiving more input than we’ve had for decades. So sure, bag some of the behavior within the ranks, but the CLP is going about cleaning that up through its pre-selection process.
    The government itself has so much more to offer having gotten on top of the debt issue. A second term will see many policy changes start to bare fruit!
    There are exciting times ahead for both the Alice and the Territory under a CLP government. On the other hand the anti-everything stance that has been adopted by Labor if they were to win Government would quickly drag us back to where we were a few short years ago!
    I don’t believe any intelligent person would want to go there. The regions are coming to life for the first time in decades! We as a community have to stay the course and see good works begun all the way through the system. As an elected member, if I get there, and I’m fully aware that won’t be easy, I will do my damnedest to drive growth, prosperity, affordability and opportunity for everyone in our community.

  6. No holds barred advocacy?
    Alice Springs is in the worst economic downturn for decades, businesses closing down, millions of dollars ripped out of youth services, house values down (might be good news for people like Mr Brown but not for families with their home as their major investment), changes to the first home owners scheme trashing the real estate market, jobs for mates … I don’t want to go on, too depressing.
    Mr Brown, you live in lalaland. Quit the tired old blame game, recognise the challenges we have and come up with something positive.
    I hope the people of Araluen see your divisive brand of politics for what it is and stick with Robyn.
    She at least has proven she has the wider interests of the town at heart.

  7. With all due respect for Steve Brown as a committed resident of Alice Springs and for putting his hand up for the CLP in Araluen, for my money it’s Robyn Lambley. I will be voting accordingly.
    Robyn is a good local member and is no less a conservative politician than is Steve.
    She now sits and will stand as an Independent because she could no longer cop the deceit and misogyny permeating the Giles government.

  8. Hal, read Robyn Lambley’s letter to the editor on this page and rethink your choice.
    Read her lame, muddled commentary.
    Unfortunately Robyn has no vision, no development narrative.
    She just muddles along.
    At this time we need politicians with ideas who can inspire and drive change.
    Certainly not a “restaurant on the range with sky lift” buffel devoted politician like Steve Brown but also not the mediocre.

  9. @ John, Posted November 30, 2015 at 1:15 pm:
    I just reread it. Liked it the first time. Like it the second.

  10. Democracy in action, a bit of argy bargy and back and forth, but no grenades or bullets.
    Let’s celebrate it.
    Steve wouldn’t get my vote, I’d hate to see become Minister for the Environment!
    But good on him for standing and giving people a choice.
    We need more people to take an active interest in politics and be prepared to put their hand up.
    I would love to see Daniel Davis have a go for the Conservative side, maybe next time around?

  11. To all those who choose a fictitious name to conceal his or her identity using a “pseudonym”, initially I wanted to challenge each of you to post using your real identity, then I realised that you are needing to hide your identity not because you are cowards and weak, but because you are in fear.
    What a shame that we live in a time where some must remain anonymous in fear of retribution, for only speaking your mind. Well my name is Eli Melky and I will be supporting Robyn Lambley in her quest to retain the seat of Araluen.

  12. I would like to remind the readers it was due to the Labor Party in government that starved Alice of funding.
    Closed us off to land to build houses. It deliberately stifled us of growth.
    The result of years of that has closed doors on businesses ensured our growth stopped and declined so the results caught us.
    A new seat in Darwin and a lost to us here in Alice. We now have two seats. Araluen and Braitling. We lost Greaterex. The CLP has ensured land is available to build homes.
    New business ventures are about to proceed. Work coming to liven up the CBD.
    People will say money pulled from some services. Services that were high cost and little or no outcomes after millions were spent.
    We have to fund programmes that benefit our youth our unemployed our elderly our people our communities.
    People are important our prosperity is important what is not important is funding organisations that continue to fail and deprive people of real outcomes.
    The CLP is gaining its balance and credibility. We now have forward momentum. Voters just have to decide: Do we continue to grow and prosper with the CLP or climb back on the slide heading down and backwards. With Labor at the wheel.
    We all have a choice to make how you use that choice will ensure which direction we go. Independents have a place in politics we have all seen the disaster of the federal outcomes where Australians were short changed by deals that got their support.
    We are the Territory. We need to grow the regions, that is what makes the city strong. Regions are the base to a good economy and strong people.

  13. Janet Brown you have lost the plot. Crime rate still seems high. House prices are low but what about the owners of a house? They will lose money. The environment has not been cared for and money has been taken away from parks and wildlife to maintain our parks which bring tourists.
    Labor and Liberal are made up of people who can’t manage a Coles center. What assets does the NT have anymore? Now we have your husband running for a position. God help us.

  14. The CLP is gaining credibility and balance, ha, ha, ha that would have to be the funniest thing I have heard. Keep the jokes coming Janet we need to finish off a terrible year with laughter!

  15. I’ve just been shocked back into reality as to why I haven’t missed JB’s diatribe. Second sentence; as I recall it was Labour that set up all the ducks for Kilgariff. Etc.

  16. As you indicate, Cogs (Posted December 1, 2015 at 1:37 pm), Paul Henderson’s Territory Labor government set up the planning and development for the Kilgariff subdivision before the last NT election in 2012.
    Prior to that, the Clare Martin and Paul Henderson Labor governments negotiated, planned and oversaw development of the land for the Stirling Heights, Albrecht Drive and Mt Johns Valley estates, between 2001 and 2012.
    Janet Brown (Posted December 1, 2015 at 11:45 am) doesn’t seem to have the fortitude to honestly acknowledge the fact that Labor was able to deliver these developments for the town.
    To Interested (Posted December 1, 2015 at 12:38 pm): Have you considered the possibility that Janet may not have “lost” the plot – is there any evidence that she ever knew the plot in the first place?

  17. Janet takes a very Stalinist approach with her historical revisionism.
    Fact: For the 10 years prior to 2001 under the Brown’s beloved CLP there was no residential subdivision development. The CLP stifled our growth because they refused to negotiate with native title holders. Something the ALP did do successfully in Larapinta and Mt. Johns. And of course Kilgariff was started under the ALP Govt and reduced under the CLP.
    Business in Alice has never been as bad as its been under the CLP. I can only assume Janet doesn’t take a stroll down the Mall or around the CBD to see all the empty shops. Or maybe she avoids the CBD because she’s too scared of running into a woman in a headscarf.
    Rewriting history and refusing to acknowledge past mistakes isn’t a good foundation for building a future. But I guess that’s not the Brown way.

  18. I am going to embark on a conspiracy theory, simply because such theories are far more creible than anything I have heard in the wedding cake for a couple of years.
    Given that Cr Brown is apparently sharing the love with the CLP again, why would they be giving him – and he accepting – the poison chalice of Araluen?
    Surely not everyone in the Alice has forgotten what happened in Braitling a while back.
    It is interesting to note that Adam has been preselected for Braitling. I don’t live in Alice but I see plenty of media which indicates the incumbent may not be as popular there as he once was.
    At the same time, the CLP has selected some three-legged camp dogs in Top End electorates.
    Sure, there are some the CLP just wouldn’t win if they were running the Second Coming of the Messiah. But some are winnable, on paper at least and depending what happens between now and whenever the poll is. It doesn’t take much to get people to roll over.
    Is it possible Cr Brown may actually jump electorates and run in Braitling instead? Is his preselection purely an insurance policy? Whatever the bloke is really like, it is hard to argue he has the profile the CLP apparently desperately needs at present.
    I don’t know where the erstwhile Cr Brown lives but before anybody claims you have to live in an electorate to contest it, I require a definition as to what exactly “lives in” means.
    Call me crazy but the list of candidates just doesn’t make sense to me.

  19. Yes, Fred the Philistine, I agree. Alice is all but a service town for the Indigenous.
    That’s a fact we currently live by, and one the town will die by if our attitudes don’t change.
    And changing it will require a great deal of effort, but it’s not impossible.
    In fact, it’s already underway! But we bluster (via email) over totally the wrong issue.
    Who the best candidate for an electorate is depends entirely on which party we believe is able to take us all in the desired direction, in the most direct and effective way.
    Elections are not about individual personalities. Individuals come and go. As we have seen in the recent past, a party player one day can become a bitter “team-of-one” the next – generally fouled by their own ego.
    We don’t have to personally like a candidate, but we do have to like the ideology, philosophy and commitment of the best team for the job. I say team because, with rare exceptions, Independents have little sway on the political machine one way or another.
    It’s an old cliché, but voting is a privilege, not just a right.
    We are required, by our very being, to give it thought and make an informed decision, not turn it into a Kardashian-style personality race to the finish line.

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