Gerard Maley

Maley was selected for the Country Liberals to contest the seat Nelson in the 2016 Northern Territory general election which he lost to long time independent member Gerry Wood. He recontested the seat in the 2020 election following Wood's retirement, and won the seat.^[6] He tallied 50.6 percent of the primary vote, enough to win the seat without the need for preferences. Ultimately, he won 59.2 percent of the two-candidate vote. However, for most of its existence, Nelson has been a comfortably safe CLP seat in "traditional" two-party matchups against Labor, so Maley's win was not considered an upset. Indeed, he now sits on a "traditional" two-party majority of 23.3 percent after picking up a healthy swing of 16.3 percent against Labor.

The election of 2020 saw only one member of the CLP returning to parliament, leader Lia Finocchiaro. As such there was a need to promote new parliamentarians into leadership roles. Maley was elected as Deputy Leader of the CLP, and hence Deputy Leader of the Opposition. He was also given the portfolios of Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Multicultural Affairs, Defence Industries, Recreational Fishing, and National Resilience.

Maley opposes the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.^[7]