Staff writers spruik One Nation: Imitation is the highest form of flattery, apparently.
Unfortunately we’re not always in control of who copies our ideas, once they are released out into the world.
We also pose this question: is it possible that their owner Owen Pyke doesn’t want real Change For Better in the Northern Territory, because once we show everyone how easy it is to have a non-corrupt, functioning Government and a Better society all round then there will be very little left for his newspaper to report on and it risks going out of business?
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Online news outlet NT Independent’s self-named ‘Independent Staff’ show their true colours (whoever they are).
It is often said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, that it is the mediocre of thought paying their small homage to something creatively superior.
Change For Better Party would also call it lazy and uninspiring especially so when it is being claimed as your own, without credit given to the source.
One of the most interesting ‘articles’, we use the term loosely, ever published on the NT Independent was some recent shameless advertising for the, in our opinion, openly racist One Nation Party run by the openly racist Pauline Hanson and her gang of anti-Aboriginal, anti-Muslim, pro-white, Christian nationalist right wingers:
https://ntindependent.com.au/one-nation-coming-to-northern-territory
Yes you read that correctly, not an article criticising or addressing any of their policy failures or uncovering corruption or conspiracy in their ranks, as is the self-declared reason for existing from the NT Independent themselves.
Assuming it wasn’t paid for somehow, instead, it was a blatant sales pitch. The kind of supportive headline kind of media release a new Party to the NT could only dream of.
We wish Change For Better Party had been liked as much as Pauline Hanson’s Party by those ‘Independent Staff’ – the irony of promoting Pauline ahead of others while calling yourselves ‘independent’ must surely be lost on whoever those staff are – to get an official shout out on the front page headline news feeds and re-publishing of potentially millions of Internet consumers.
And if one commenter is to be believed, those independent staff writers’ pitch just made their first sale. It achieved its goal, as she announced she was now going to become a paid up member of the new One Nation NT Party:
Jane Davies on November 6, 2025 at 6:55 am
After 25 years supporting ALP I realise these political predators are part of the CLP Uniparty so I’ve joined One Nation. The NTG is a protection racket maintaining a dysfunctional expensive system. Charles Darwin suggests ‘adapt or die’’, Darwin is too small for the two-party unicameral parliament. Inuit community parliament would serve the community rather than 25 MLA,S who can hide, lie & cost a fortune.
Thank you NT not-Independent Staff, great job guy/s.
The 373 words which they published was the exact kind of attention that we here at Change For Better Party have been trying to get for more than 6 months now.
*Credit where credit is due though, Chris Walsh (we think) has been allowing us to comment on relevant articles and plug our own new Party through links in our comments. Quite a few of those comments have been more than 1000 words long with a link at the end. Numerous of those being longer than the article they follow.
For the record: Even though some of our comments have been deleted without any reason given and our requests for clarification have gone unanswered, we still must say thank you for publishing what comments you have already.
However, back to the official Plug For Pauline’s Party as staff writers spruik One Nation.
There is more to this promotion than meets the eye, we believe.
Not long after we set up our little work in progress website in February 2025, we started to populate the NT Independent’s comments sections with the idea of us fighting against what we’d been calling in private for years a “2 party duopoly”:
The angel on Jim Jefferies’ left shoulderon March 21, 2025 at 3:51 am
Stinks stinks stinks.
….deeper into the putrid public service swamp of 2 party duopoly Northern Territory politics.
The angel on Jim Jefferies’ left shoulder on March 26, 2025 at 6:50 pm
Exactly. Deliberate.
Change For Better is coming.
The poisonous 2 party duopoly will finally have decent, honest, aggressive, no longer putting up with this shit, competition for 2028.
Later on, after announcing himself as a One Nation Party member and Senate candidate, Darren Nugent then also started using that phrase in his comments too.
It’s a free country (in theory at least) so he can use whatever he likes of course:
Darren Nugent on August 23, 2025 at 11:32 am
Good Saturday morning all,
She is, as usual the ALPCLP duopoly, a disgrace to Territorians!
Have a great weekend
Daz
Darren Nugent on September 15, 2025 at 9:54 pm
Why, when reading this article does my mind suddenly saturate me with images of a muppet with a long tongue, no morals, with no respect for themselves, happily salivating at the chance to lick arse!
Oh this ALPCLP duopoly must have great parties, all at Territorians expense!
Liar and the duopoly disgust me!
Then in the NT Independent-promoted One Nation announcement last week we see, unsurprisingly, their lack of new ideas already, front and centre:
with the goal to “break the major party duopoly” in the NT, a One Nation senator said.
WA Senator Tyron Whitten was in Darwin last month for the party’s first branch meeting,
Entering the NT is part of the plan to break the “major party duopoly” in the NT, Mr Whitten said
“We’re here to break the major party duopoly that has consistently failed Territorians.
The party is looking to register as an official party in the NT early next year.
Funny to us, is how easy it would be to write a short 373 word article telling readers about our new Change For Better Party in the NT, which publicly states that we are fighting the 2 party duopoly (3 times!) and who is also looking to register as an official party in the NT early next year.
You could almost just substitute the names and keep 50% of your words.
This shady shout out is showing us that something deeper is going on.
It shows all of us that the NT Independent is not actually as ‘independent’ as it claims to be on its own website.
It shows us that One Nation, with nothing new to offer, is copying the right people.
It reinforces to us that we’re definitely the Change (For Better Party) that the NT needs.
In fact, we’re the only Party who wants to Change things with some fundamentally new ideas for politics, a totally different plan to run a budget and a Better way to reduce crime while improving communities at the same time.
We will Change For Better how Government is run and who it is run by. Out with the old, bye-bye Greg and Alastair and all your family and cronies and the old way of doing things in the NT.
In with the completely new.
Maybe Territory businessman and NT Independent owner Mr Owen Pike doesn’t want Change, For Better?
Maybe he likes the status quo, keeping things just the way they are? Which is exactly what you’ll get if you keep assisting One Nation by the way, Owen.
Maybe when we Change things For Better his newspaper will have very little left to report on?
And maybe that’s why Pauline’s Party gets Promoted while we are demoted?
CFB
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For clarity and the public record, here is the latest deleted comment so that anyone reading this can compare it to the One Nation advertising ‘article’ to see where NT Independent’s priorities might lie:
‘There’s no sense arguing anymore if the previous Labor government was worse than the current Finocchiaro CLP Government’
We couldn’t agree more which is why Change For Better Party has been consistently calling out this ‘CLP is ALP is CLP is ALP’ in these comment pages for the last 12 months:
*read their media releases (ignored so far by all the media) in the links at the top of that page.
We have a CLPALP Alliance, an alliance to personally strip the benefits from the political arena at the expense of projects which need that money to succeed.
It’s a form of political corruption but because it’s been going on for so many years and no one in power has attempted to Change it For Better then it’s slowly become the norm and therefore accepted by a tired and weary voting population.
Whichever wing of the ALLiance is in power, their thinking is:
Why hold anyone accountable if you don’t have to?
Why would’t you employ your mates if there are no consequences for doing so?
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But this situation leads to bigger questions which we have posed before:
How do you get trustworthy and engaged people into politics in order to Change it into something much Better?
You need a group/movement/Party that starts off from a position of difference to what’s gone on before.
You need a group/movement/Party whose base is one of proven trustworthiness, a base where people have a track record of fighting for that Change previously.
This will attract others who share those values and repel any who don’t.
Like bees round honey.
Take the Freedom Of Information (FOI) issue for example:
Change For Better Party have been advocating for the very thing that the CLP has just shut down, amongst other things, during 2025.
Here’s a quote directly from one of the media releases (ignored) on their website:
‘For starters, we offer:
Transparency built into governance: We will mandate full public disclosure of all decision-making documents, contracts and conflict of interest registers related to government bodies etc. No more hidden deals. Free FOI, a commitment to full and open Government.’
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Why have they been offering a completely different transparency and FOI regime?
Because the founder, multiple times whistleblower Ferg Ferguson, spent years fighting and winning legal battles against NT Government to release more documents under Freedom Of Information (FOI).
He’s been campaigning for new FOI laws through his own actions, taking on Government secrecy and winning, single handedly for more than 10 years:
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Go to the infocomm [dot] nt [dot] gov [dot] au website then hit ‘resources’ then ‘decisions and case notes’ to see some of Ferg’s winning legal battles.
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Read Change For Better Party’s ideas on whistleblowing too.
Some say they’re radical because those same people want to crush whistleblowing, whereas Change For Better Party was founded by a serial whistleblower.
He knows what to do to protect and promote whistleblowing and what not to do.
Hear anyone else said anything about incentivising whistleblowing? Nope.
Has anyone else been promoting Freedom Of Information (FOI) before our Clockwork Orange AG tried to shut it down too? Nope.
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‘the two parties are conspiring to enrich themselves at the expense of Territorians’
We’ve seen this Alliance for years as well and we’ve also been calling it out. But which other Party has? No one.
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We’ll say this again too: the Darwin Waterfront Corporation Files is to the CLP what the Epstein Files is to the USA Republican Party.
Lia has started to develop a cult of personality much like Donald Chump has done. The Crappy Littleminded Party will slot in behind her if she protects them from consequences, which is exactly what she is doing.
Only outside groups looking in are calling for the same ways to fix this, as Change For Better Party has been doing.
But to Change things, you have to be inside the building. Shouting and screaming from outside allows you to be ignored by those in power, which is what’s happening again now.
If you take that anger and resentment and join a new Party for Change then you might actually get some of the Change done that you’re calling for.
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‘We want our political leaders to forgo their entitlements, their egos and their over-inflated sense of self-worth and truly lead for the good of the Territory while earning back the public’s trust.’
This will not happen in the current election cycle and beyond because in their Littleminds it was exactly those traits which made them successful and propelled them into Alastair Shields From The Public-like financial comfort.
This will not happen at all if we continue to cross our fingers in hope and then vote in the ALP again. Or the CLP again.
The ALLiance really really don’t care what happens outside of their self-created bubbles.
You are asking a snake not to be a snake.
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The only way we are going to Change For Better the system which has been made to enable and support all the things NT Independent and some others are complaining about, is to vote in people who don’t have those old party connections.
People who have a proven history of fighting for Change, for Better FOI laws, for Better whistleblower protections, for Better governance in general.
Beware the snake oil salesmen and saleswomen who promise you something different without being able to show you how it will be different.
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Complaining and whinging from the sidelines will only take you so far. Of course we need these things exposed by the media but that then has to manifest into Change.
Join the only new movement, soon to be Party, who has a published track record of fighting for the kind of Change we need and want.
All whistleblowers out there: Change For Better Party wants you. You have shown us you have the requisite body parts to stand up for the right things, oftentimes at great personal sacrifice.
We welcome you with open arms, to help us Change this nonsense For Better.
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Dare to Change, For Better.
Otherwise, all we’ll keep getting is More Worse.
And then this from NT Independent owner Mr Owen Pyke on his ideas for making a Better Territory, FFS.
Does he ever read his own newspaper?
Letter to the editor: Creating the Australian Pub Championships could turn the Build-up into a drawcard
by Admin NT Indy | Nov 13, 2025 | Opinion | 1 comment
1290 words begging for Karaoke, thong tossing and wet t-shirt competitions!
