The Country Liberal Party won the
first Northern Territory election on 19 October 1974 and elected
Goff Letts majority leader. He headed an Executive that carried out most of the functions of a ministry at the state level. At the
1977 election Letts lost his seat and party leadership. He was succeeded on 13 August 1977 by
Paul Everingham (CLP) as Majority Leader. When the Territory attained self-government on 1 July 1978, Everingham became chief minister and his Executive became a Ministry. Despite the Majority Leader's title, the Majority Leader's opposite number was not known as Minority Leader but instead the Leader of the Opposition. In 2001,
Clare Martin became the first Labor and female chief minister of the Northern Territory. Until 2004 the conduct of elections and drawing of electoral boundaries was performed by the Northern Territory Electoral Office, a unit of the Department of the chief minister. In March 2004 the independent
Northern Territory Electoral Commission was established. In 2013, Mills was replaced as chief minister and CLP leader by
Adam Giles at the
2013 CLP leadership ballot on 13 March to become the first
indigenous Australian to lead a state or territory government in Australia. Following the
2016 election landslide outcome, Labor's
Michael Gunner became chief minister; he was the first Chief Minister who was born in the Northern Territory. On 10 May 2022, Gunner announced his intention to resign. On 13 May 2022,
Natasha Fyles was elected to the position by the Labor caucus. On 19 December 2023, Fyles resigned following controversy over undeclared shares in mining company
South32. On 21 December 2023,
Eva Lawler replaced Fyles by a unanimous decision of the Labor caucus. ==List of chief ministers of the Northern Territory==