Updated December 19, 2018 14:46:11

Growing angst within the Territory Labor Party has been exposed in a series of leaked emails in which Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ken Vowles told his colleagues “the community have clearly lost faith in us”.

He also said Cabinet would have to cut more than $200 million from Government departments.

A separate email from backbencher Jeff Collins warned that “I for one, do not believe we can go forward simply with a chin-up approach, repeating the lines of spin, regardless of how much truth [or otherwise] they contain.”

The emails were sent to Caucus colleagues on Sunday and Monday, several days after Treasurer Nicole Manison released a damning independent report warning that without fiscal changes, the NT’s net debt could skyrocket from an estimated $4.5 billion this financial year to $35.7 billion in just over a decade.

The leaks come as Ms Manison on Wednesday met with her federal counterpart Josh Frydenberg to discuss the dire state of the Territory economy.

In Mr Vowles’s email, he told his colleagues: “Let’s park our egos and think about the best interest of everyone”, before warning that most of them would be looking for jobs after the 2020 election if the economic issues were not addressed.

“Colleagues, our budget situation is dire — our debt level is ridiculous for our population,” Mr Vowles wrote.

“We need to re-evaluate every announcement, every commitment, because we need to make the hard decisions for the future of the Territory, not decisions to enhance our re-election prospects.

“The community have clearly lost faith in us and in our ability to manage the Territory and our budget for them.”

‘I can already see the headlines’

Attached to Mr Vowles’s Sunday email was separate correspondence he had sent in November to Cabinet colleagues, prior to the release of the independent report.

“We are now at an economic crisis point where we have no option but to make tough decisions,” Mr Vowles wrote.

“We are now borrowing for NTPS [NT public service] operational costs, we are at a significant risk of being downgraded which will impact our ability to borrow more.

“I can already see the headlines for the 2020 election!! Debt, Territorians are paying $1.4mil a day in interest, soft on crime, bad for businesses, economic mismanagement, etc.”

He thanked Ms Manison for her work as Treasurer and acknowledged it was a “thankless task”, but said departmental CEOs — including the head of the Chief Minister’s Department, Jodie Ryan — needed to take some of the blame.

“We as a Cabinet will enter budget cabinet with the monumental task of cutting another $200mil plus from our departments with NO accountability from the CEOs,” Mr Vowles wrote.

“How can the CEO of DCM [Department of the Chief Minister] not be held accountable for another blowout and overspends by our departments when as we know WE will be held accountable for the budget blowouts and cuts to the public sector we will need to undertake to “recoup” the overspends.

“Enough is enough.”

540 more public service jobs than limit

In his November email, Mr Vowles said if the NT Government was a private business it “would be trading insolvent”.

“It would have closed up, sold the house, sold the cars and be bankrupt,” he said.

“It doesn’t pass the pub test, it won’t pass any test.”

Ms Manison responded to the emails by acknowledging “the next budget will be tough”.

“This is what I describe as one of our ‘marathon’ issues,” she wrote to colleagues.

“We need to stay united and level headed as a team so we can make sensible and sustainable long-term changes to benefit the Territory.”

When asked by reporters if she asked Mr Frydenberg for a bail-out, she replied: “We had a chat with regards to different mechanism I think could assist the NT; I will always fight for the Territory’s fair share when it comes to funding, such as infrastructure investment in areas that will create jobs and diversify our economy.”

Mr Collins said Ms Manison, who also holds the police portfolio, should concentrate solely on being the Treasurer, with the assistance of a separate minister for Northern Development, Infrastructure, and Investment.

“There should be someone making sure each of the departments actually reduce their staff numbers and not increase them,” he said.

“If the reports are correct we are currently around 540 public service positions above where we decided we would be last year, or around $58 million up,” Mr Collins said.

He added that he had “serious concerns” about senior Government staffers, “but that is a conversation for the Caucus room”.