Denis Burke (Australian politician)

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Denis Burke" Australian politician – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Honourable Denis Burke
6th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory
In office 8 February 1999 – 27 August 2001
Deputy	Mike Reed
Preceded by	Shane Stone
Succeeded by	Clare Martin
Constituency	Brennan
Personal details
Born	(1948-09-22) 22 September 1948 (age 75) Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Country Liberal Party
Spouse	Annette Burke
Relations	Lia Finocchiaro (daughter-in-law)
Cabinet	Burke Ministry

Denis Gabriel Burke (born 22 September 1948) is a former Australian politician. A former Australian Army officer, he served as a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1994 to 2005. He spent two years as Chief Minister after succeeding Shane Stone, but oversaw the CLP's defeat at the 2001 election, ending 27 years of continuous CLP government in the Northern Territory. Burke later served as Opposition Leader from 2001 to 2003 before being toppled, but was re-elected as leader in 2005. He subsequently took the party to its largest-ever defeat at the 2005 election, culminating in the shock loss of his own seat.