Brent Potter is an Australian politician who represented the Fannie Bay in the

Northern Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory (also known as the Parliament of the Northern Territory) is the unicameral legislature of Australia’s Northern Territory. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member ...

from a 2022 by-election on 20 August 2022 until his defeat at the 2024 election.

Career

Before his political career, Potter worked in the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

, during which he was deployed to Afghanistan. He also worked in aged care, defence manufacturing, business development, and as a policy advisor to

Natasha Fyles Natasha Kate Fyles (born 26 May 1978)Natasha Fyles
''Territory Women'', Northern Te ...

, the Northern Territory's Chief Minister from 13 May 2022 until her resignation in 2023. Potter has lived in Darwin since 2009. He has a Master's of Business from the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

Political career

Former

Chief Minister of the Northern Territory The chief minister of the Northern Territory is the head of government of the Northern Territory. The office is the equivalent of a state premier. When the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was created in 1974, the head of government w ...

Michael Gunner 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. He was a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, holding ...

resigned from his seat of Fannie Bay in the Legislative Assembly on 27 July 2022, triggering the 2022 Fannie Bay by-election. The Labor Party revealed Potter as its candidate on 30 July. Potter's now deactivated

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

page showed he had previously worked for an aerospace company which he had helped secure $10 million in public funds from the government. At the by-election on 20 August, he was elected, withstanding a swing against him. Potter enacted the 2024 Alice Springs curfews and supported the subsequent curfew legislation.

Controversies

Offensive social media posts on Facebook

In March 2024, it was reported in the media that Potter had made

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

social media posts and jokes on

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over the past 11 years, which he apologised for and has since deleted. Potter has since called out racism in the

Northern Territory Police Force The Northern Territory Police Force is the police body that has legal jurisdiction over the Northern Territory of Australia. This police service has 1,607 police members (2021-22 financial year) made up of 83 senior sergeants, 228 sergeants, 912 ...

. In the posts, Potter reportedly shared offensive memes, quoted

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

s, praised

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

and casually used the word ''

nigger In the English language, ''nigger'' is a racial slur directed at black people. Starting in the 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been increasingly replaced by the euphemistic contraction , notably in cases where ''nigger'' is Use–menti ...

''. Potter apologised for the posts and said they were satirical and did not represent his views.

Personal life

Potter has four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Brent Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of New South Wales alumni