Leaders Support Northern Territory To Become 7th State Of Australia By 2018

After bidding several times for statehood, Northern Territory has finally secured the support of Federal, state and territory leaders to be the seventh state of Australia by 2018. The Council of Australian Governments, or COAG, has confirmed the referendum in a communique from the Leaders Retreat yesterday. The Northern Territory is required to submit a report on the progress in the next COAG meeting.

"I was very pleased to have the support from colleagues at the table that I'm at now to see the Northern Territory strive to become a state by [July 1], 2018," Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles said this afternoon. "It was a non-partisan discussion and non-partisan support."

According to ABC, the issue has been discussed in a number of previous COAG meetings. Giles said even though the Northern Territory had previously received backing from the leaders of all the states and territories, there was change in the composition of the COAG since the last one had different leaders for Queensland and Victoria.

The statehood for Northern Territory was voted down by the Territorians themselves once back in 1998. The idea was shelved after it was defeated with 48.1 percent votes in its favour at that time. Even though it was brought up several times after that, no referendum was drawn on it before this. There has also been very small progress in terms of statehood under the ruling Country Liberal party.

In June, News Corp quoted Giles saying that statehood is not a priority for the Territorians. Although the Northern Territory has its own Minister of Statehood, no step has so far been taken nor any fund allocated for the purpose. In fact, Bess Price, the Northern Territory Minister of Statehood was quite unsure of her position regarding the application of statehood for the territory at last month’s budget estimates hearing.

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