Robyn Lambley

Robyn Jane Lambley (born 26 January 1965) is a former Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. She was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly representing the division of Araluen for the Country Liberal Party in a 2010 by-election following the resignation of Jodeen Carney.

Early Life

Lambley was born in Grafton, New South Wales, and moved to Alice Springs in 1993 where she was in charge of the hospital's Social Work Department and Aboriginal Liaison and Interpreting Service. In 2000, she and her husband opened the Mad Harry's retail store. In addition to running the business and raising two children, Lambley served as a councillor on the Alice Springs Town Council, and was deputy mayor of Alice Springs from 2006 to 2007.^[1]

Politics

Following the Country Liberal Party's victory in the 2012 territory election, the CLP voted Lambley deputy leader of the party (and Deputy Chief Minister to Terry Mills), replacing Kezia Purick who had been deputy leader prior to the election.^[2] Lambley resigned as the Deputy Chief Minister on 5 March 2013, but was reported to be likely to remain the Treasurer.^[3]

Lambley was sacked from cabinet in February 2015 for helping Willem Westra van Holthe and John Elferink line up support for their attempted coup against former Chief Minister Adam Giles. She resigned from the CLP on 17 June 2015 after the release of a proposed redistribution of electoral boundaries that would see her seat of Araluen dismantled.^[4] A revised map later saw Araluen retained.

Lambley contested Araluen as an independent in the 2016 Territory election. She just barely nosed out her replacement as CLP candidate, Stephen Brown, on the primary vote. However, she won comfortably on a strong flow of Labor preferences, taking 58 percent of the two-candidate vote.^[5][6]

References