1997 Northern Territory general election
A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday August 30, 1997, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP).
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All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 79.0 ( 1.7 pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shane Stone continued as Chief Minister.
During the previous term, the CLP had lost the seat of Fannie Bay to Labor in a by-election. The CLP did not win the seat back, but managed to take MacDonnell from Labor and Nelson after Independent Noel Padgham-Purich retired.
Retiring MPs
Labor
- Neil Bell MLA (MacDonnell)
Country Liberal
- Fred Finch MLA (Leanyer)
- Rick Setter MLA (Jingili)
Independent
- Noel Padgham-Purich MLA (Nelson)
Results
| 18 | 7 |
| CLP | Labor |
|
Northern Territory general election, 30 August 1997[1] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrolled voters | 101,886 | |||||
| Votes cast | 80,479 | Turnout | 79.0% | –1.7% | ||
| Informal votes | 4,161 | Informal | 5.0% | +1.2% | ||
| Summary of votes by party | ||||||
| Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
| Country Liberal | 41,722 | 54.7% | +2.8% | 18 | +1 | |
| Labor | 29,365 | 38.5% | -2.9% | 7 | ±0 | |
| Independent | 4,327 | 5.7% | –0.2% | 0 | –1 | |
| Democrats | 484 | 0.6% | +0.5% | 0 | ± 0 | |
| Greens | 420 | 0.6% | –0.2% | 0 | ± 0 | |
| Total | 76,318 | 25 | ||||
| Two-party-preferred | ||||||
| Country Liberal | 57.9% | +1.6 | ||||
| Labor | 42.1% | –1.6 | ||||
Candidates
Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour.
Seats changing hands
| Seat | Pre-1997 | Swing | Post-1997 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Member | Margin | Margin | Member | Party | ||||
| MacDonnell | Labor | Neil Bell | 15.9 | 18.7 | 2.8 | John Elferink | Country Liberal | ||
| Nelson | Independent | Noel Padgham-Purich | 3.1 | 3.7 | 0.6 | Chris Lugg | Country Liberal | ||
Post-election pendulum
The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. The pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in the Legislative Assembly according to the percentage point margin they are held by on a two-party-preferred basis. This is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted.
| Country Liberal seats | |||
| Marginal | |||
| Nelson | Chris Lugg | CLP | 0.6 v IND |
| Karama | Mick Palmer | CLP | 1.7 |
| Macdonnell | John Elferink | CLP | 2.8 |
| Nightcliff | Stephen Hatton | CLP | 4.6 |
| Fairly safe | |||
| Jingili | Steve Balch | CLP | 6.7 |
| Casuarina | Peter Adamson | CLP | 7.9 |
| Millner | Phil Mitchell | CLP | 8.7 |
| Sanderson | Daryl Manzie | CLP | 9.3 |
| Safe | |||
| Greatorex | Richard Lim | CLP | 10.5 |
| Goyder | Terry McCarthy | CLP | 11.7 |
| Drysdale | Stephen Dunham | CLP | 13.3 |
| Victoria River | Tim Baldwin | CLP | 16.1 |
| Braitling | Loraine Braham | CLP | 16.4 |
| Port Darwin | Shane Stone | CLP | 17.0 |
| Araluen | Eric Poole | CLP | 19.2 |
| Very safe | |||
| Blain | Barry Coulter | CLP | 23.8 |
| Brennan | Denis Burke | CLP | 24.3 |
| Katherine | Mike Reed | CLP | 24.5 |
| Labor seats | |||
| Marginal | |||
| Stuart | Peter Toyne | ALP | 1.5 |
| Wanguri | John Bailey | ALP | 2.0 |
| Fannie Bay | Clare Martin | ALP | 3.0 |
| Fairly safe | |||
| Arafura | Maurice Rioli | ALP | 9.0 |
| Arnhem | Jack Ah Kit | ALP | 7.8 |
| Barkly | Maggie Hickey | ALP | 8.0 |
| Safe | |||
| Very safe | |||
| Nhulunbuy | Syd Stirling | ALP | 22.1 |
References
- "Legislative Assembly General Election 1997". Northern Territory Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2014.