Yesterday, at the "Key Arts Organisations" meeting hosted by Arts NT at Frog Hollow, the importance of the NT arts sector lobbying Ministers and members of the Legislative Assembly was discussed. I mentioned that we only had to lobby 13 government members and that was a relatively easier task compared to our peers' who had to lobby many more members of Parliaments in the other jurisdictions.

I wasn't sure about the number "13" and said so at the meeting. I've since done more homework and realised that the "13" comes from my memory of the first Labor government in the NT which came to power in 2001; they had 13 members then.

Here are the numbers for the current Assembly:

25 members
4 CLP
2 Independent
19 ALP
9 Cabinet members

Yes, there are more members to lobby, but still a relatively small number compared to other jurisdictions.