Michael Gunner

His great-grandfather settled in Tennant Creek in the 1930s from Tbilisi in Georgia, fleeing the country after the Russian Revolution.

He has Indigenous relatives in Utopia north of Alice Springs.

Gunner went to school in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Darwin.

He began a law degree at Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University), switching to a Bachelor of Arts degree which he completed.

He supported himself by working at retail chain Big W and as an electorate officer.

He has represented the Territory in rugby union.

Michael Patrick Francis Gunner (born 6 January 1976) is an Australian former politician who was the 11th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2016 to 2022.

Gunner was born in Alice Springs in 1976, the eldest of four children, to Mick and Jane Gunner.

Gunner went on to work as a senior government ministerial and policy adviser between 2001 and 2008 to former Chief Minister Clare Martin.

He won the third-largest majority government in Territory history (just percentage points behind Labor's 2005 landslide), and faced only two CLP members as opposition − fewer than the five independents in the chamber.

Although Labor was technically the only official party in the legislature, Gunner pledged that the CLP would be properly resourced as an opposition.

Despite Labor's massive majority, Gunner retained CLP-turned-independent Kezia Purick as Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for a second term.

He was a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, holding the seat of Fannie Bay in Darwin from the retirement of then Chief Minister Clare Martin at the 2008 election until his resignation in July 2022.

Gunner was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the Electoral division of Fannie Bay in 2008 after the retirement of Chief Minister Clare Martin at the 2008 election.

The election saw Gunner retain the seat for the Labor Party by only a slight margin, over Garry Lambert, former alderman and acting Lord Mayor.

Gunner was elected Labor leader in the Northern Territory, becoming Leader of the Opposition, in April 2015.

After a failed attempt in 2013, on 19 April 2015 Gunner announced he would stand for the leadership of the Northern Territory Labor Party against incumbent Delia Lawrie, who was facing criticism of her conduct during an inquiry into the gifting of heritage property Stella Maris to Unions NT while she was a minister.

Four days later, Lawrie resigned and Gunner was elected unopposed as leader.

He held the portfolios of Major Projects, Northern Australia Development, Police, Fire and Emergency Services, Open and Transparent Government and Business and was Shadow Treasurer.

Originally a member of Labor Right, Gunner became factionally unaligned, resigning from the Right after taking over as Opposition Leader.

Gunner moved a Motion of No Confidence against the Adam Giles Government on 1 December 2015 but was unsuccessful.

He led Labor to a landslide victory in the 2016 Northern Territory election.

He was sworn in on 31 August, the first Northern Territory Chief Minister to have been born there.

Labor went into the 2016 territory election as unbackable favourites, with Northern Territory opinion polls indicating a massive swing against the CLP.

Additionally, at the 2016 federal election held two months earlier, Labor picked up a healthy seven-point swing in the Territory, and took the federal seat of Solomon—which is largely coextensive with the Darwin/Palmerston area—off the CLP in a large swing.

At the 27 August Territory election, Gunner led Territory Labor to one of the most comprehensive election victories on record at the state or territory level in Australia.

Labor won 18 seats in the 25-member Legislative Assembly on a swing of over 14 percent, the largest two-party swing on record in the Territory.

En route, Labor took all but one seat in Darwin/Palmerston, and even ousted Giles in his own seat—only the second time that a Majority Leader/Chief Minister had been rolled in his own electorate.

The CLP was cut down to just two seats − the worst defeat of a sitting government in the Territory's history, and among the worst ever suffered by a state or territory government in Australia.

Gunner declared that Territorians had "rejected the chaos of the last four years", in part a reference to the numerous reshuffles that had taken place during the previous government, including multiple leadership spills.

Normal practice in Australia calls for a defeated government to stay in office on a caretaker basis until the final results are in.

However, with Labor's victory beyond doubt even though counting continued until early September, Gunner arranged to have Administrator John Hardy swear himself, Natasha Fyles, and Nicole Manison as an interim three-person government until all prospective ministers were confirmed as elected.

Accordingly, Gunner was sworn in as Chief Minister on 31 August 2016.

Gunner held 38 portfolios in the three-person ministry in contrast to Manison solely as Treasurer and Fyles as just Attorney General and Justice Minister.

His full ministry was selected on 11 September and sworn in the next day, with Manison as his Deputy Chief Minister after former deputy leader Lynne Walker was narrowly defeated in her own seat.

Notably, a majority of the new cabinet -five of its eight members − were women.

Gunner entered office in a formidable position.

Gunner led Labor to another victory in the 2020 election, albeit with a reduced majority.

On 10 May 2022, Gunner announced his intention to resign the position of Chief Minister.

On 27 July 2022, Gunner resigned his position as member for Fannie Bay.