Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has accused the opposition of a "smear campaign" against Labor's candidate for tomorrow's Fannie Bay by-election, over claims of a potential conflict of interest.
Voters in the inner-Darwin seat will go to the polls from 8am tomorrow, after the departure of former chief minister, Michael Gunner.
Labor candidate Brent Potter is one of the main contenders, as well as Country Liberal Party (CLP) candidate, Ben Hosking.
The opposition has used its final week of the campaign to question whether Mr Potter, who is currently an advisor to the chief minister, had a potential conflict of interest regarding a recent government funding commitment.
The NT government in July committed up to $10 million dollars to build an aircraft manufacturing base in Darwin with a start up company called Amphibian Aerospace Industries (AAI).
Before working as an advisor with the NT government, Mr Potter worked for the now chief executive of AAI at a different technology company, Elbit Systems.
Mr Potter told ABC Radio Darwin he had declared his work history and potential conflict of interest before joining the fifth floor.
He also said he was "proud" of the government's investment with the company and the work he did to facilitate it.
"I'm really proud to have brought that to the territory," Mr Potter said.
"I think most Territorians want long-term jobs, [and] this has the opportunity to present long-term jobs.
"I made the initial introduction for the department with them so that they could have that discussion, [then] they went through all the levels of due diligence with the Local Jobs Fund and it went through an independent assessment as well."
Despite this, the CLP is calling for the government to explain Mr Potter's involvement in securing the deal.
"This information has been coming out in dribs and drabs and it needs to be dealt with," CLP Deputy Leader Gerard Maley said.
On Thursday, Ms Fyles defended Mr Potter and said her government was made aware of his conflict of interest.
"I can absolutely assure Territorians that Brent is of the highest integrity and that all processes have been followed," she said.
"There was a rigorous process around the AAI announcement and so it is disappointing to see this run as a smear campaign a couple of days before a by-election."
The chief minister did not say whether the government knew about Mr Potter's conflict of interest before the government committed to the deal.
The money for the aircraft manufacturing project was allocated from the NT government's Local Jobs Fund, which was set up after the government scrapped its Infrastructure Development Fund.
Mr Potter said he had played a role in stopping the project from going elsewhere.
"They were in talks with the Queensland government and I said 'before you guys do anything, how about you come and talk to our investment commissioners,' and that's what they did," he said.
"At the end of the day in the private sector, you meet people that have great ideas and opportunities, and if they come to you, it's an obligation, you have to take them into the department to meet the bureaucracy," he said.
Mr Potter's LinkedIn page detailing his employment history, which also includes working as the assistant manager of Regis Tiwi Gardens in 2015, was deactivated ahead of his candidacy being announced.
Last week he said the page had been deactivated to prevent people from contacting him through the platform.
"At the end of the day I've have a lot of people trying to contact me while I'm also knocking doors," he said.
"It's a lot easier to have one single point of contact being Facebook, [plus] obviously I've got my mobile number and my email out there."
