Contest over Northern Territory is satisfactory (9)
I believe the answer is:
competent
'satisfactory' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'contest over northern territory' is the wordplay.
'contest' becomes 'compete' (I've seen this before).
'over' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'northern territory' becomes 'nt'.
'compete'+'nt'='COMPETENT'
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for competent that I've seen before include "Able (to do something)" , "Expert" , "Efficient, capable" , "Qualified" , ""not bad"" .)