1983 Northern Territory general election
A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia on Saturday 3 December 1983. The result was a landslide victory for the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Paul Everingham over the Australian Labor Party (ALP) opposition under Opposition leader Bob Collins.
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All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 81.6 ( 3.6 pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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For this election, the size of the assembly was increased from 19 to 25.
The only independent of the Legislative Assembly, Dawn Lawrie, lost her seat of Nightcliff at this election to the CLP.
Retiring MPs
CLP
- Les MacFarlane MLA (Elsey)
Results
| 19 | 6 |
| CLP | Labour |
|
Northern Territory general election, 3 December 1983[1][2] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrolled voters | 62,178 | |||||
| Votes cast | 50,716 | Turnout | 81.6% | +3.6% | ||
| Informal votes | 1,532 | Informal | 3.0% | –0.2% | ||
| Summary of votes by party | ||||||
| Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
| Country Liberal | 28,637 | 58.2% | +8.2% | 19 | + 8 | |
| Labor | 17,505 | 35.6% | –3.8% | 6 | – 1 | |
| Independent | 2,155 | 4.4% | –3.7% | 0 | – 1 | |
| Democrats | 887 | 1.8% | +0.9% | 0 | ± 0 | |
| Two-party-preferred | ||||||
| Country Liberal | 61.1% | |||||
| Labor | 38.9% | |||||
| Total | 49,184 | 25 | ||||
Candidates
Sitting members are in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour. Where there is possible confusion, an asterisk is used.
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 | |||
| Sanderson | Daryl Manzie | CLP | 4.8 |
| Fairly safe | |||
| Nightcliff | Stephen Hatton | CLP | 7.9 v IND |
| Ludmilla | Col Firmin | CLP | 8.2 |
| Fannie Bay | Marshall Perron | CLP | 9.8 |
| Safe | |||
| Barkly | Ian Tuxworth | CLP | 10.3 |
| Wagaman | Fred Finch | CLP | 11.1 |
| Wanguri | Don Dale | CLP | 11.4 |
| Victoria River | Terry McCarthy | CLP | 15.2 |
| Casuarina | Nick Dondas | CLP | 15.4 |
| Elsey | Roger Steele | CLP | 15.8 |
| Leanyer | Mick Palmer | CLP | 15.9 |
| Araluen | Jim Robertson | CLP | 16.2 v IND |
| Port Darwin | Tom Harris | CLP | 18.6 |
| Berrimah | Barry Coulter | CLP | 18.7 |
| Flynn | Ray Hanrahan | CLP | 19.2 |
| Very safe | |||
| Koolpinyah | Noel Padgham-Purich | CLP | 20.1 |
| Sadadeen | Denis Collins | CLP | 20.5 |
| Jingili | Paul Everingham | CLP | 21.8 |
| Braitling | Roger Vale | CLP | 27.8 |
| LABOR SEATS | |||
| Marginal | |||
| Nhulunbuy | Dan Leo | ALP | 1.2 |
| Millner | Terry Smith | ALP | 4.4 |
| Fairly safe | |||
| Arnhem | Wes Lanhupuy | ALP | 8.6 |
| Macdonnell | Neil Bell | ALP | 8.9 |
| Safe | |||
| Arafura | Bob Collins | ALP | 11.7 |
| Stuart | Brian Ede | ALP | 14.3 |
References
- Wade-Marshall, Dean Jaensch, Deborah (1994). Point of order! : the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory 1974-1994. Darwin: Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory. ISBN 0731520769.
- P. Loveday, Dean Jaensch (1983). A Landslide Election, the NT 1983. Darwin: ANU North Australia Research Unit. ISBN 0867844396.
- Jaensch, Dean; Wade-Marshall, Deborah (1984). Northern Territory Electoral Atlas 1974–1984. Australian National University/Flinders University. ISBN 0959924698.