Robyn Jane Lambley (born 26 January 1965) is an Australian politician. She is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

member representing the division of Araluen 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 ...

, having been first elected in a 2010 by-election as a member of the

Country Liberal Party The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP), commonly known as the Country Liberals, is a centre-right and conservative political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In territory politics, it operates in a two-party system wi ...

. She resigned from the party and contested Araluen as an independent in 2016. She was a member of the

Territory Alliance Territory Alliance (TA) was an Australian political party based in the Northern Territory. It was founded in 2019 by Terry Mills, an incumbent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territo ...

between March and October 2020. Between August 2012 and March 2013, Lambley served as the

Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory The deputy chief minister of the Northern Territory is a role in the Government of the Northern Territory assigned to a responsible Minister in the Northern Territory. It has second ranking behind the chief minister of the Northern Territory ...

and Treasurer of the Northern Territory in the Mills Ministry.

Early life

Lambley was born in

Grafton, New South Wales Grafton ( Bundjalung: ''Gumbin Gir'') is a city in the Northern Rivers region of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is located on the Clarence River, on a floodplain, approximately by road north-northeast of the state capital Sydney. ...

, and moved to

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

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 The Alice Springs Town Council is a local government area in the Northern Territory. On 1 July 1971, Alice Springs was gazetted as a Municipality with the town council elected on 25 July 1971. It is situated south of Darwin. The council governs ...

, and was deputy mayor of Alice Springs from 2006 to 2007.

Politics

Lambley was preselected by the Country Liberal Party (CLP) to contest the 2010 Araluen by-election following the resignation of Jodeen Carney, winning the by-election with 68.04% of votes cast. 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 A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

to Terry Mills), replacing Kezia Purick who had been deputy leader prior to the election.Sleath, Emma (29 August 2012)
Lambley new deputy leader
ABC Darwin, 29 August 2012. She and Mills were initially sworn in as a two-person government, pending the full ministry's swearing-in on 3 September. At that time, among other portfolios, Lambley became Treasurer. Lambley resigned as the Deputy Chief Minister on 5 March 2013, but stayed on as Treasurer. In a March cabinet reshuffle, Lambley became Minister for Health, a post she retained when Mills was ousted in favour of

Adam Giles Adam Graham Giles (né Romer; born 10 April 1973) is an Australian former politician and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (2013–2016) as well as the former leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the unicameral Northern T ...

. Lambley was sacked from cabinet in February 2015 for helping Willem Westra van Holthe and John Elferink line up support for their attempted party-room coup against 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. A revised map later saw Araluen retained. Lambley contested Araluen as an independent in the 2016 Territory election. On the primary vote, she finished just a few hundred votes ahead of her replacement as CLP candidate, Stephen Brown. However, she easily defeated Brown on Labor preferences, taking 58 percent of the two-party vote. Lambley often communicates with voters in her district with 'drive thru chats', where she sits by the side of the road and waits for people to pull over and discuss local issues within her community. On 18 March 2020, Lambley joined the

party founded by former chief minister Terry Mills. She also became deputy leader of Territory Alliance, once again becoming Mills' deputy as she had been Deputy Chief Minister to Mills in the previous CLP government. Lambley was the only member of Territory Alliance to be re-elected in the 2020 general election, narrowly retaining her seat despite an 8.1% swing against her. In October 2020, Lambley confirmed she had resigned from the party and would once again represent Araluen as an independent. She became Speaker of the Assembly after the CLP won power in 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambley, Robyn 1965 births Living people Deputy chief ministers of the Northern Territory Treasurers of the Northern Territory Members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Country Liberal Party members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Independent members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Territory Alliance members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Australian social workers Northern Territory local councillors People from Grafton, New South Wales 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Women members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Women local councillors in Australia