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Michael Patrick Francis Gunner (born 6 January 1976) is an Australian former politician who was the 11th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2016 to 2022. He was a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, holding the seat of Fannie Bay in Darwin from the retirement of then Chief Minister Clare Martin at the 2008 election until his resignation in July 2022.
Gunner was elected Labor leader in the Northern Territory, becoming Leader of the Opposition, in April 2015. He led Labor to a landslide victory in the 2016 Northern Territory election. He was sworn in on 31 August, the first Northern Territory Chief Minister to have been born there. Gunner led Labor to another victory in the 2020 election, albeit with a reduced majority.
On 10 May 2022, Gunner announced his intention to resign the position of Chief Minister. On 27 July 2022, Gunner resigned his position as member for Fannie Bay.
Gunner went to school in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Darwin. He began a law degree at Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University), switching to a Bachelor of Arts degree which he completed. He supported himself by working at retail chain Big W and as an electorate officer. He has represented the Territory in rugby union. Gunner went on to work as a senior government ministerial and policy adviser between 2001 and 2008 to former Chief Minister Clare Martin.
At the 27 August Territory election, Gunner led Territory Labor to one of the most comprehensive election victories on record at the state or territory level in Australia. Labor won 18 seats in the 25-member Legislative Assembly on a swing of over 14 percent, the largest two-party swing on record in the Territory. En route, Labor took all but one seat in Darwin/Palmerston, and even ousted Giles in his own seat—only the second time that a Majority Leader/Chief Minister had been rolled in his own electorate. The CLP was cut down to just two seats − the worst defeat of a sitting government in the Territory's history, and among the worst ever suffered by a state or territory government in Australia. Gunner declared that Territorians had "rejected the chaos of the last four years", in part a reference to the numerous reshuffles that had taken place during the previous government, including multiple leadership spills.
Normal practice in Australia calls for a defeated government to stay in office on a caretaker basis until the final results are in. However, with Labor's victory beyond doubt even though counting continued until early September, Gunner arranged to have Administrator John Hardy swear himself, Natasha Fyles, and Nicole Manison as an interim three-person government until all prospective ministers were confirmed as elected. Accordingly, Gunner was sworn in as Chief Minister on 31 August 2016. Gunner held 38 portfolios in the three-person ministry in contrast to Manison solely as Treasurer and Fyles as just Attorney General and Justice Minister. His full ministry was selected on 11 September and sworn in the next day, with Manison as his Deputy Chief Minister after former deputy leader Lynne Walker was narrowly defeated in her own seat. Notably, a majority of the new cabinet -five of its eight members − were women.
Despite Labor's massive majority, Gunner retained CLP-turned-independent Kezia Purick as Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for a second term.
A perennial election issue, Labor removed the CLP's open speed limit and implemented a 130 km/h speed limit along a 300 km stretch of the Stuart Highway between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek.
Gunner ordered a moratorium on fracking, and also undertook a review of all water licences issued under the previous government. The moratorium commenced on 14 September. On 17 April 2018, the moratorium was revoked.
Gunner has expressed support for Chinese government investment in the Northern Territory in the form of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Nevertheless, on election night, ABC Psephology Antony Green projected that Labor would win at least a minority government almost three hours after the polls closed. Gunner later declared victory an hour later, saying that he was "very confident" that Labor had won another term, with the Country Liberals refusing to concede defeat on election night.
Ultimately, Gunner led Labor to win 14 of the 25 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Labor suffered a net four seat drop from the 2016 landslide, but retained a bare majority of two seats. Labor grabbed all but two seats in the Darwin/Palmerston area, even managing to oust Territory Alliance leader and former CLP Chief Minister Terry Mills from his own seat of Blain. The CLP, under Lia Finocchiaro, managed to snatch some of its usual heartland seats in Alice Springs and Katherine back from Labor that were swept away amid the massive 2016 landslide, allowing it to quadruple its seat count to eight.
In October 2021, the United States Senator from Texas Ted Cruz posted a tweet that was critical of the Northern Territory's vaccine mandates. Gunner's response to the tweet went Viral phenomenon quickly.
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In late January 2020, it was reported that Gunner would undergo heart surgery, after suffering a heart attack earlier in the month which had originally been described as a "minor heart scare".
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