The Northern Territory government was set to face “the wrath of the electorate” the former chief minister Terry Mills said on Saturday, as he sought to regain his seat as an independent.
Polling booths for the NT election closed at 6pm across the region, with many predicting an early finish of the counting and an annihilation of the incumbent Country Liberals.
IT'S TERRITORY ELECTION DAY SO WE THOUGHT WE'D BE SERIOUS FOR ONCE >> pic.twitter.com/UUkYQts7NC
— The NT News (@TheNTNews) August 26, 2016
Almost 40% of people had chosen to vote in the week before election day, in what the parliamentary Speaker, Kezia Purick, said was a clear sign major parties needed to be upfront with voters earlier.
As well as allowing people to cast their ballot early without requiring an excuse, this election has also set exclusion zones for the first time, preventing the handing out of how-to-vote cards within 100m of a polling booth.
In the Palmerston seat of Blain, voters were choosing between a well known Labor face, a last minute CLP candidate and the former chief minister who won the last election but was rolled seven months into his term.
Blain had been represented by CLP minister Nathan Barrett until he was forced to resign over a sexting scandal in June.
He had won the seat in a byelection after the former chief minister Mills resigned.
Mills has returned as an independent candidate and hoped his long history as a representative for Blain would bring him success.
Mills said he believed the CLP would be “subject to the wrath of the electorate, significantly” and would be “very lucky” to get four seats.
He said the energy levels were high as people were “angry, frustrated and disappointed”.
“They’re using the opportunity they’ve been provided with to vent that by coming out and making a decision, early in numbers that have never been like that before.”
Mills was confident of his standing in the community, with a history of 15 years as its MLA and 10 years as a school principal.
He said it was his endorsement that helped Barrett win the byelection, not the CLP brand.
“[Chief minister Adam] Giles and [his then deputy David] Tollner could not come anywhere near this community because they were so offended by them,” he said.
“He won with my endorsement, then he fell as he did, and people were in despair, they didn’t know what to do, so I decided to come back. I then broke my ties with the Country Liberal party because I – in good conscience – can’t be seen to be supporting that brand”.
Damian Hale, a union organiser for the Australian Workers Union and former federal Labor member for Solomon, said those who had approached him had largely talked about wanting a change of government, but also had concerns about the rate of growth in Palmerston and how associated problems like traffic and crime were being dealt with.
Hale said the the exclusion zone made the day “a lot less fun than it used to be”.
“I used to love election day, handing out how-to-votes, and now it’s just waving at cars,” he told Guardian Australia.
Barrett’s replacement candidate, Marie-Claire Boothby, said she wasn’t around for the “history” which had dogged the party, but she’d spent the whole six weeks since her preselection door-knocking, and “a lot of people still had a lot of respect and they really enjoyed the type of representative they had recently”.
“If I can get out into the community just like previous guys were, that’s half the battle.”
Labor's Damian Hale says Election Day not as much fun with a 100m exclusion zone on handing out HTVs. #ntvotes pic.twitter.com/4U6psa0rgg
— Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) August 27, 2016
Outside Palmerston, in the rural seat of Goyder, the parliamentary speaker who quit the CLP in disgust last year was confident of her re-election as an independent candidate.
The polling booth at Bees Creek had been quiet, she said, with many people voting early.
Purick said the huge 40% proportion of voters who got it over and done with before Saturday was a clear sign that major parties needed to have their policies sorted well in advance.
It showed how decisively people had made up their minds about the government, Purick told Guardian Australia, and sent a signal to the major parties that “anything they release in the last week, half the population had voted so it didn’t mean anything to them”.
“I think it might mean that in reflection they’ve got to get policies and costings out much earlier in the campaign.”
Labor had faced criticism for not releasing its costings until Thursday. The CLP had released its two days prior but Treasury analysis wasn’t made public until Thursday. Labor had also accused the CLP of an “outrageous and cynical betrayal” when its costings revealed an apparent shortfall in its $1.6bn promise for more remote housing, but most remote living Territorians had already voted.
Purick was confident of retaining Goyder, and said she’d faced very little backlash from constituents over leaving the CLP. She said in fact people had begged her to quit the party because they supported her but not the CLP any longer.
“People are still cranky at the CLP selling public assets for what they believe is no serious reason,” she told Guardian Australia at Bees Creek.
She said planning issues and poor consultation, particularly by the minister, Tollner, were behind rural voter dissatisfaction with the CLP.
“People aren’t naturally inclined out this way to vote for Labor.”
Purick estimated the CLP would be lucky to keep four seats, but there needed to be “a good strong crossbench to hold government to account” if Labor win as predicted.
She said she would like to remain as Speaker should she be re-elected.
Independent (and ex-CLP) @KeziaPurick says people are cranky with the government, predicts maybe 4 seats. #ntvotes pic.twitter.com/X9FsNDsdO2
— Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) August 27, 2016
The deputy chief minister, Peter Styles, told Guardian Australia earlier on Saturday he hoped his work for the local community was enough, and that constituents saw his government had delivered despite the scandals.
“Sure there has been some issues, and some of those people are now going out of politics, some of them didn’t get preselected, so they’re going,” he said.
Giles had earlier in the week said he was confident of winning. On Saturday he told media he would “have a beer” if he was wrong. Giles had planned to remain in his Alice Springs seat on Saturday, and not join the CLP election event in Darwin.
Deputy CM Peter Styles says there have been issues with CLP but "some of those people are now going". #ntvotes pic.twitter.com/rOpRzZKMtl
— Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) August 27, 2016
