Goff Letts

Godfrey Alan "Goff" Letts (18 January 1928 – 10 March 2023) was the Majority Leader of the Northern Territory of Australia from 1974 to 1977.

Biography Born in Donald, Victoria, Letts attended Melbourne Grammar and Melbourne and Sydney Universities, graduating with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science in 1950. Letts gained employment with the Victorian Department of Agriculture and married Joyce Crosby on 29 November 1952. Together they had three sons and three daughters.

Letts moved to the Northern Territory in 1957, initially working in Alice Springs before transferring to Darwin as the District Veterinary Officer for the Northern Region of the Northern Territory. He was appointed Director of the Animal Industry and Agriculture Branch of the Northern Territory in 1963, Chair of the Northern Territory Wildlife Council and to the Northern Territory Lands Board in 1964. Awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1966, Letts was appointed to the Northern Territory Legislative Council in 1967 as an official (non-elected) member representing the Department of Lands and Primary Industry. His growing disillusionment with the bureaucratic control of the Territory from Canberra led him to resign from those positions in 1970 to enter private industry as a vet.

As Majority Leader, Letts prepared the Territory for self-government, which was to be granted in 1978, and administered the day-to-day running of Territory affairs. Although his powers were limited, he was generally considered a capable leader. It was therefore surprising when he lost his seat at the 1977 election, even though the CLP was returned with a comfortable majority. Letts' ousting was particularly surprising given that it is almost unheard of for major-party leaders at the federal, state or territory level in Australia to lose their own seat. Letts blamed his defeat on his long absences from his remote electorate on Majority Leader business.

Letts died on 10 March 2023 in Stawell, Victoria, at the age of 95.