March for Jesus has been told it needs to follow the rules to take part in the 2026 Darwin Christmas parade. ( Supplied )
The City of Darwin rejected an application from a Christian group to participate in the 2026 Darwin Christmas Pageant.
The council claims the March for Jesus group engaged in "intimidating" and "confronting behaviour" last year, which the group denies.
The NT government says it will take over the Christmas pageant from 2027, which the Darwin lord mayor says is not possible.
A decision by Darwin City Council to omit a Christian group from the 2026 Darwin Christmas Pageant has escalated into a war of words between the council and the Northern Territory government.
Darwin City Council (DCC) rejected March for Jesus's application to participate in this year's pageant, citing "intimidating and confronting" behaviour from the group at last year's event.
"People in that organisation were saying things along the lines of 'God is coming for your children because they've been demonised,'" Lord Mayor Peter Styles said.
Peter Styles says the council received complaints about the group's behaviour at last year's parade. ( ABC News: Pete Garnish )
DCC chief executive Simone Saunders said the council had received complaints from members of the public about March for Jesus participants allegedly tossing merchandise such as wristbands at spectators who did not want them.
"Where parents were saying, 'I don't wish to take that particular item', there were reports of them being thrown at children," she said.
The council's move prompted swift backlash from a raft of Christian groups, including the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), which has firmly rejected the accusations.
Nicholas Lay has rejected the accusations against the March for Jesus group. ( ABC News: Xavier Martin )
"The group actually filmed the entirety of the event from their perspective, it's on YouTube," said ACL NT director Nicholas Lay.
"When you're confronted with comprehensive evidence that they were well-behaved, I think you'd have to have pretty good evidence to suggest otherwise."
The NT Country Liberal Party (CLP) government, meanwhile, has slammed the council's decision, and said it would take over the Darwin Christmas Pageant from 2027 onwards.
Marie-Clare Boothby has called the council's decision "un-Australian". ( ABC News: Pete Garnish )
"Council's decision to ban a Christian group from this year's Christmas pageant can only be described as un-Australian," Major Events Minister Marie-Clare Boothby said in a statement.
"From 2027 the NT government will take back the pageant to ensure it is run properly."
The ABC contacted a March for Jesus spokesperson who was not available for comment.
Late this week the debacle exploded into a wider dispute between the DCC and government, with Mr Styles accusing the NT government of making the council a "punching bag".
"Every time there's some sort of an issue they want to divert attention from, they come and punch us," he said.
"That happened after Cyclone Fina with the cyclone clean-up issue; it's happened with this pageant issue."
Earlier this year, DCC and the NT government butted heads over the council's decision to delay and potentially permanently reschedule its pre-cyclone clean-up to May.
The dispute led to several MLAs launching a petition to reinstate the clean-up, and a string of Facebook posts accusing the council of ignoring constituents.
Mr Styles, a former CLP deputy chief minister, has accused the government of sharing misinformation about the pageant and, previously, about the cyclone clean-up.
"We've certainly indicated our displeasure at them putting out information which is misinformation and then the backbenchers putting it all up on Facebook," he said.
The government was contacted for comment on Mr Styles's remarks.
Mr Styles today said that March for Jesus was welcome to take part in the Christmas pageant as long as its participants followed the rules of the event.
"We've negotiated with the senior people in the organisation to get their people to follow [the rules]. A further meeting is also scheduled coming up this week," he said.
"But they've got to be aware certain people in their organisation were performing badly last year, which caused this to become an issue."
The Darwin Christmas Pageant has been running each year since 2022. ( ABC News )
Mr Lay said he hoped March for Jesus was involved despite the debacle and welcomed the NT government's announced takeover of the pageant.
"It's a welcome decision, but it's unfortunate that it had to go that far," he said.
"The simple solution was they made a mistake and should have undone it straight away."
Mr Styles said while an NT government "takeover" of the pageant was not within the government's powers, he was happy to negotiate with the government about who ran the pageant.
Ms Boothby was not available for an interview.
