As the dust settles from the Northern Territory’s bloodbath of an election, the makeup of the next parliament is beginning to emerge.
There are already 10 predicted female members, approaching last parliament’s 11, and it could become Australia’s first female-dominated government, if the three women contesting seats still too close to call are successful.
All but one of Labor’s pre-election seats have held. At least nine seats have changed hands and there remain six undecided but the overall result is clear – the Labor party won resoundingly with at least 15 seats in the 25-seat parliament.
The CLP will be lucky to hold three, which means it’s likely there will be more independents than official opposition members. The chief minister-elect, Michael Gunner, has said his government will look at the financial mechanisms to ensure all non-Labor MLAs receive adequate resources.
Successful CLP candidate Lia Finocchiaro and ex-CLP turned independent speaker Kezia Purick have both said they will work with independents to be an effective opposition. Finocchiaro wouldn’t rule out a formal coalition, telling local radio “everything is on the table at this stage”.
Purick flagged a possible memorandum of understanding between the crossbenchers and CLP, or a rotating opposition leadership position between them.
Among the seats yet to be determined are Labor’s deputy chief minister, Lynne Walker – who could be the only Labor incumbent to lose after a strong result for the independent candidate and Yolngu man Yingiya Mark Guyula – and the ousted chief minister’s electorate of Braitling.
Adam Giles drew criticism for hinting he might move to federal politics to have a tilt at the Senate. On Saturday night, before his defeated colleagues and staff had a moment to count their losses, Giles told media he was “leaving it wide open” and saw it all as “the stepping stone to what comes next”.
Another former chief minister, Shane Stone, said it was “unseemly”.
“We’d just been belted, trashed, thrown out of office and all of a sudden people start talking about the next career,” Stone said on ABC radio. “No, no, you need to repent, you need to help repair the damage to get this party back on track.”
He said if Giles put his hand up he would “do everything within my power to defeat his preselection”.
Giles hasn’t lost Braitling yet and if he holds on he will be one of just two or three CLP members sitting in the unicameral parliament. Below are the seats which pollsters are confident have changed hands.
Aarafura
Arafura had one of the lowest voter turnouts across the Northern Territory, of just 43.5%. Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu had held the seat, which encompassed the Tiwi Islands and Western Arnhem Land for the past term.
Kurrupuwu suffered less than half the swing against him than the CLP average but it wasn’t enough and, with less than half the votes counted, it appeared Labor’s Lawrence Costa would win.
Costa, who has Tiwi heritage, lives on his Pitjarmirra outstation on Melville Island. He is the former chief executive of the Tiwi Islands local government and was most recently a health service development officer.
Arnhem
Larisa Lee, the incumbent independent member who since the 2012 election had quit the Palmer United party which she’d joined after quitting the CLP, suffered one of the biggest defeats on Saturday, with just 60 primary votes in her favour with 46% counted.
Elected Labor member Selena Uibo is an award-winning educator who has taught in her mother’s homeland community of Numbulwar since 2012. Uibo has previously spoken about a “glass ceiling” effect in remote communities, which sees managerial roles go to non-local people.
Brennan
Incumbent MLA Peter Chandler had largely avoided implication in the series of scandals that rocked the CLP government over the past four years. However, he too lost his (previously very safe) Palmerston seat, suffering a swing against him in line with that against the party.
Labor’s Tony Sievert will leave his job with the health department to become the member for Brennan and has previously worked as a corrections officer and in youth and community services.
Drysdale
Drysdale is another formerly very safe CLP seat to fall in Palmerston. It was previously held by Lia Finocchiaro, who was preselected for the new seat of Spillet and was the only CLP candidate to hold on during Saturday’s whitewash.
Labor’s Eva Lawler is a former bureaucrat in the Department of Sport and Recreation and the education department. She is also a former educator. In the previous Labor government Lawler was a senior adviser to Marion Scrymgour, the NT education minister who introduced the controversial policy dictating the first four hours of school in Indigenous communities must be taught in English.
Fong Lim
The Darwin seat of Fong Lim did not suffer as big a swing against it as some other CLP strongholds, contested by all new faces. David Tollner, the controversial incumbent who featured heavily among the CLP scandals of the past four years, sought but failed to gain preselection in the new electorate of Spillet and was left with no seat to stand for.
His replacement, Tim Dixon, distanced himself from some of Tollner’s more divisive policies during the campaign but, with about half the ballots counted, he had lost the seat with about 41% of the two-party preferred vote. It was also contested by two high-profile independents.
Labor’s Jeff Collins is a Darwin-based lawyer, councillor for the Law Society NT and member of the human rights committee for the Law Council of Australia. Collins and his family moved to the Northern Territory from Sydney in 2012.
Namatjira
Controversial figure Alison Anderson retired at the election, having represented the central desert seat of Namatjira as an independent after quitting the Palmer United party, and before that the CLP, with Larisa Lee.
Despite her political affiliations, Anderson threw her support behind the Labor candidates in Namatjira and neighbouring Stuart, and the CLP saw a whopping swing of more than 34% against it with almost half the votes counted.
Incoming Labor member Chansey Paech counts himself as a fifth-generation Centralian and was elected to the Alice Springs council in 2012. He has previously campaigned for youth services in the desert town to assist the high number of kids at risk.
Port Darwin
Another inner Darwin seat vacated by a controversial minister. Attorney general John Elferink’s announcement of his retirement in November was this year followed by the broadcast of Four Corners’ episode on juvenile detention. Elferink was stripped of two portfolios and remained largely away from public view for the remainder of the campaign, with reported death threats against his family. His CLP replacement candidate, Rohan Kelly, had worked in education supporting children with special needs, and in the department of infrastructure. With two thirds of the vote counted, Kelly saw a 12.8% swing against him and he lost to Labor candidate Paul Kirby.
Kirby is the Northern Territory organiser for the Electrical Trades Union and came up against the economy-driving Inpex resource project in a dispute over retrenchments that went before the Fair Work Commission.
Sanderson
The most recent deputy chief minister, Peter Styles, had hoped his local work for his suburban Darwin seat of Sanderson over two consecutive terms might save him but, with a 14.3% swing after a third of votes counted, Labor’s candidate, Kate Worden, took the seat.
Worden has been a Northern Territory public servant since 1995, working in government departments including mines, education, health, consumer affairs and, most recently, housing, where she oversaw complaints and compliance. During the campaign Worden spruiked Labor’s commitment to increase government contracts with NGOs to five years in order to reduce red tape and staff turnover, and improve long-term planning capabilities.
Stuart
Incumbent CLP member and Warlpiri woman Bess Price is predicted to have lost her central Australia seat of Stuart. There are a number of factors being considered, including the general swing against the CLP but also the redistribution of the electorates, which saw Stuart gain areas traditionally supportive of Alison Anderson – a powerful Indigenous politician who supported the Labor candidate, Scott McConnell, after she announced her retirement a few weeks ago. Price accused Anderson and McConnell of telling voters “we will give you grog and Bess will take it away”, a charge Anderson denied.
Alice Springs-born McConnell is a former park ranger and the former head of the Ingkerreke Outstation Service and Ngurratjuta/Pmara Ntjarra Aboriginal Corporation.
