Michael Patrick Francis Gunner is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician. He is a Labor

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly

Northern Territory Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral parliament of the Northern Territory in Australia. It sits in Parliament House, located on State Square, close to the centre of the city of Darwin.-History:...

, having held his seat of Fannie Bay

Electoral division of Fannie Bay

Fannie Bay is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It is located in the inner northern suburbs of Darwin, with its current boundaries including the suburbs of Fannie Bay , Parap, East Point, The Narrows, The Gardens and parts of Stuart Park...

 since the retirement of Chief Minister

Chief Minister

A Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...

 Clare Martin

Clare Martin

Clare Majella Martin is a former Australian politician. She is the current CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service . A former journalist, she was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995...

 at the 2008 election

Northern Territory general election, 2008

General elections were held in the Northern Territory of Australia on 9 August 2008. 23 of the 25 seats in the Legislative Assembly were contested; two safe Labor seats were uncontested...

. The election saw Gunner retain the seat for the Labor Party by only a slight margin, over Garry Lambert

Garry Lambert

Garry Lambert is an Australian politician. He was the Lord Mayor of Darwin from 2007 to 2008. He was the unsuccessful Country Liberal Party candidate for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly seat of Fannie Bay in the 2008 election....

, former alderman and acting Lord Mayor

Lord Mayor

The Lord Mayor is the title of the Mayor of a major city, with special recognition.-Commonwealth of Nations:* In Australia it is a political position. Australian cities with Lord Mayors: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney, and Wollongong...

. The victory was somewhat unlikely, because of the relative youth and inexperience of Gunner, compared to the experience, age and reputation of Lambert. Despite this, Gunner did have the advantage of being the incumbent and successor to former Chief Minister, Clare Martin. Analysts also argued that this may have been a disadvantage to Gunner, who may find in difficult to live up to the former efforts of Martin, a long time resident of the electorate and greatly respected politician.