Dumped Northern Territory minister Ken Vowles says he will file a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to his own Labor Government in an effort to prove it leaked emails so it could sack him.

Key points: Ken Vowles says that if he can prove the NT Government leaked his emails, Chief Minister Michael Gunner should sack himself

Ken Vowles says that if he can prove the NT Government leaked his emails, Chief Minister Michael Gunner should sack himself Mr Gunner says a letter Mr Vowles sent to the Northern Land Council was not leaked, but strategically released

Mr Gunner says a letter Mr Vowles sent to the Northern Land Council was not leaked, but strategically released Mr Vowles says he has no interest in becoming chief minister, and has been drawn into internal Labor Party politics against his will

Mr Vowles was minister for Aboriginal affairs and primary industry and resources before he was dropped from caucus on Friday, along with assistant minister Jeff Collins and backbencher Scott McConnell.

The trio had spoken out about the Government's handling of the NT's escalating debt crisis, with both Mr Collins and Mr McConnell criticising Chief Minister Michael Gunner for dropping a damning interim report on the fiscal black hole at lunchtime on Friday December 14, letting Treasurer Nicole Manison face the media before leaving for a holiday in New Zealand.

During the week, emails which Mr Vowles wrote to his colleagues in caucus — warning them the community had lost faith in Labor and that the Government could not simply repeat its spin — were leaked to the media.

"I firmly believe they were leaked so as to discredit Ken … to manufacture this sort of dispute so this sort of action can be taken to remove Ken, Scott, and myself form the caucus," Mr Collins told the ABC on Saturday.

NT News journalist Hayley Sorensen, who broke the initial story, tweeted that she received the emails from the fifth floor of NT Parliament, which is the engine room of the Government.

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The Chief Minister cut short his Christmas holiday to return to Darwin and address the sackings, and repeatedly denied that the leak of the emails — or an earlier leak of a confidential letter Mr Vowles sent to the Northern Land Council (NLC) about Blue Mud Bay fishing access arrangements — came from his Government.

Mr Vowles said he had refused to leak the letter when asked to by Mr Gunner's powerful chief of staff, Alf Leonardi, but that it landed on the NT News website an hour after he sent it. He said only he, his own chief of staff, his media adviser, Mr Leonardi and Mr Gunner had the email containing the letter.

Mr Gunner said on Saturday that he had always intended to release the information after it was provided to the NLC.

"I promised at a press conference, I think it was the Monday, Tuesday that week that there would be no secret deals," he said.

"I got asked to provide a copy of our deal, I said 'no, the NLC will receive it first and then we will make it public'. That was a public promise from me at a press conference. There was no leak."

Mr Gunner also denied that the fifth floor had leaked Mr Vowles's other emails critical of the Government.

"Those emails were not leaked by the fifth floor, they were not leaked by us, they served no useful purpose to anyone," he said.

"I can guarantee they came — they did not come — that was not a leak from the fifth floor."

Scott McConnell (left) and Jeff Collins (right) have been dumped from the Labor caucus. ( Supplied: Scott McConnell/Jeff Collins )

'This is just smoke and mirrors'

On Sunday, Mr Vowles told the ABC he was "in the process of FOI-ing relevant people on the fifth floor to prove they did leak" his letter to the NLC.

"The credibility of the Chief Minister is on the line here," he said.

"If it comes true, I expect Michael Gunner to sack himself.

"We've got a Chief Minister who's been desperate, we've got a Chief Minister who will do anything to take the focus off him, and this has certainly done that; this has certainly taken the focus off how we're struggling with the budget, we've got no plan, how crime's out of control, and what we're doing.

"This is just smoke and mirrors and I'm absolutely disgusted [with the treatment]."

Since Labor won government in a landslide in 2016, Mr Vowles said Mr Gunner had seen him as the biggest threat to his leadership.

"I have said consistently, regardless of what you read in the media … I have no interest in being the chief minister of the NT," Mr Vowles said.

"I just want to do the job given to me in those portfolios … and you've seen the support I've got by the industry.

"It's unquestionable that I've just put my head down and got on with the job I've needed to do.

"And for the last two-and-a-half years I've been drawn into the internal politics of the Labor Party when I've said, 'leave me alone, I just want to do my job and that is all'."

Mr Vowles said he was "very, very hurt" to hear only silence from his caucus colleagues, who Mr Gunner said voted unanimously voted for the three MLAs to be dismissed from caucus.

Christmas season now 'killing season', local says

On Sunday morning at the Rapid Creek Markets in Darwin, in Mr Vowles's electorate, a number of locals praised the work he had done.

"We fought a war with the Nazis on dictatorship and that's exactly what we've got," a natural honey stallholder said.

"The people are the ones that vote. Aren't they allowed to have a say?"

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Local man Pieter Bekkers said it was not the Christmas season but rather "the killing season".

"The repercussions will be a long time coming … I believe Ken Vowles exercised a masterstroke in his press conference and chucked his CEO [Michael Gunner] under the bus. I loved it," he said.

"In the end it will count against them [Labor]. The real pricks out there will be taken down."

Former NT Country Liberals treasurer and deputy leader David Tollner tweeted his support for Mr Vowles over the weekend, referencing his own government's string of scandals during its single term in power.

"Ken, they've bankrupted Government and tanked the economy, but look on the bright side … none of them have sent a tossing video or come back from Vietnam with a new girlfriend," Mr Tollner wrote.

Mr Vowles said the message made his day.

"It was certainly one of those spit-my-coffee-out moments," he said.

"I just thought it was the funniest thing I've seen."