Electoral division of Arafura

Arafura is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1983, and takes its name from the Arafura Sea, which adjoins the electorate. The electorate is predominantly rural, encompassing 57,410 square kilometres (22,170 square miles) in western Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands, and including the towns of Oenpelli, Jabiru, Maningrida, Milikapiti and Nguiu. There were 5,183 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2020.

Arafura
Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Arafura in the Northern Territory
TerritoryNorthern Territory
Created1983
MPLawrence Costa
PartyLabor Party
NamesakeArafura Sea
Electors5,183 (2020)
Area57,410 km2 (22,166.1 sq mi)
DemographicRemote

Background

Arafura was a safe seat for the Labor Party for most of its history. Its first MLA was Labor leader Bob Collins, who transferred to the seat from Arnhem upon the expansion of the Assembly in 1983. Collins retired 4 years later and was replaced by Stan Tipiloura. Tipiloura died of kidney failure in 1992, and was succeeded by former Australian rules footballer Maurice Rioli. Rioli retired at the 2001 election and was in turn succeeded by Marion Scrymgour. Scrymgour briefly left the Labor party in 2009 after being sacked as a minister, and retired at the 2012 election.

At that election, the CLP picked up a large and unprecedented swing in remote seats, which had traditionally been safe for Labor. Arafura was no exception, with CLP candidate Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu winning the seat on a 15 per cent swing. Kurrupuwu briefly left his party along with two other indigenous CLP MLAs in 2014. Lawrence Costa regained the seat for Labor in 2016 as part of his party's landslide victory that year. The electorate has a particularly high indigenous population, which has been reflected in its having been represented by five consecutive indigenous MPs.

Members for Arafura
MemberPartyTerm
  Bob Collins Labor 1983–1987
  Stan Tipiloura Labor 1987–1992
  Maurice Rioli Labor 1992–2001
  Marion Scrymgour Labor 2001–2009
  Independent 2009
  Labor 2009–2012
  Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu Country Liberal 2012–2014
  Independent 2014
  Palmer United 2014
  Country Liberal 2014–2016
  Lawrence Costa Labor 2016–present

Election results
See also: Electoral results for the division of Arafura
This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2020 Northern Territory general election § Arafura[edit]
2020 Northern Territory general election: Arafura[1][2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labor Lawrence Costa 1,269 49.0 +0.6
Country Liberal Gibson Illortaminni 1,041 40.2 +4.4
Independent Tristan Mungatopi 199 7.7 +3.5
Territory Alliance George Laughton 82 3.2 +3.2
Total formal votes 2,591 94.8 N/A
Informal votes 142 5.2 N/A
Turnout 2,733 52.7 N/A
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Lawrence Costa 1,388 53.6 −3.7
Country Liberal Gibson Illortaminni 1,203 46.4 +3.7
Labor hold Swing−3.7

References
  1. "Electorate summary: Arafura". NTEC. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  2. "Arafura". ABC Elections. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 7 September 2020.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.