http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-03/colleagues-lost-confidence-in-giles-says-new-westra-van-holthe...
The Northern Territory's new leader says he made his move to seize the leadership of the governing Country Liberal Party (CLP) because the party lost confidence in Adam Giles.
Willem Westra van Holthe has given his first interview to explain his overnight coup, after a short media conference at 1:00am.
Mr Giles lost the leadership of the party late on Monday night.
"There are a lot of reasons why this has occured," Mr Westra van Holthe told 105.7 ABC Darwin.
"At the end of the day a vast number of my parliamentary colleagues simply lost confidence in the former chief minister.
"They approached me and asked me if I was interested to step into the position and that sort of set the ball rolling I guess."
The new leader, who has yet to be sworn in by the NT's Administrator and is not yet officially the chief minister, said Mr Giles had lost touch with Territorians.
It's very difficult to please all of the people all of the time and you can expect that there'll be a bit of push back.
Willem Westra van Holthe, CLP leader
"This is not something that should have just been a sudden thought bubble, or just happened in the last couple of days," he said.
"This is something that has been building over time.
"As time goes by we all get messages sent to us from our community members... and I think that's resonated with our colleagues strongly enough to suggest that they thought it was time for a change in our leader."
Mr Westra van Holthe conceded some within the party wing of the CLP were caught off-guard by the late-night coup.
"It's very difficult to please all of the people all of the time and you can expect that there'll be a bit of push back," he said.
"This came as a bit of a surprise to some members and it will take a little bit of time for them to become accustomed [to the change]."
