Electoral division of Blain

Blain is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997 and is named after Adair Blain, the second member for the federal Northern Territory electorate, and the only Australian sitting federal MP to ever become a prisoner of war. Blain is an urban electorate, covering 4 km² and taking in Palmerston suburbs of Bellamack and Woodroffe, and most of the suburb of Rosebery and a small section of the suburb of Moulden. There were 5,695 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2020.

Blain
Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Location of Blain in the Darwin/Palmerston area
TerritoryNorthern Territory
Created1997
MPMark Turner
PartyLabor
NamesakeAdair Blain
Electors5,695 (2020)
Area4 km2 (1.5 sq mi)
DemographicUrban

The current member for Blain is Mark Turner, who was elected for Labor at the 2020 election.

History

For the better part of four decades, Palmerston was reckoned as a bastion of conservatism, and all the seats in the city were usually held by the Country Liberal Party. For the first three decades of its existence, Blain was reckoned as a particularly safe CLP seat even by Palmerston standards, with successive members winning it without serious difficulty. This was further emphasised at the 2005 election, when Blain was one of only four CLP-held seats retained by the party after a landslide victory by the Labor Party, and the only CLP seat in the Darwin/Palmerston area.

Longtime CLP MP and Deputy Chief Minister Barry Coulter, who had represented Palmerston-area electorates since 1983 (Berrimah from 1983 to 1987 and Palmerston from 1987 to 1997) held this seat for the final term of his parliamentary career. He was succeeded by Terry Mills, who became a prominent member of the CLP frontbench after the CLP lost power for the first time in 2001. He eventually became CLP leader from 2003 to 2005, returning to the leadership in 2008. After narrowly losing the 2008 Territory election, he led the CLP to victory in 2012 and became Chief Minister.

Mills was deposed in a party-room coup less than a year later, and Nathan Barrett retained the seat for the CLP at the ensuing by-election despite a 10 percent swing.

Barrett was forced out of politics in 2016 after he sent a lewd video to a constituent.[1] At the 2016 election, the CLP was pushed into third place after its primary vote plummeted to 25 percent, losing more than half of its primary vote from 2012. The seat was nearly swept up in the massive Labor wave that swept through the metropolitan area. However, Mills, contesting his old seat as an independent, narrowly defeated former federal MP Damian Hale to return to the legislature. Mills founded the Territory Alliance party in November 2019, but was defeated at the 2020 election, with Mark Turner winning the seat for Labor.[2]

Members for Blain
MemberPartyTerm
  Barry Coulter Country Liberal 1997–1999
  Terry Mills Country Liberal 1999–2014
  Nathan Barrett Country Liberal 2014–2016
  Independent 2016
  Terry Mills Independent 2016–2019
  Territory Alliance 2019–2020
  Mark Turner Labor 2020–present

Election results
See also: Electoral results for the division of Blain
This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2020 Northern Territory general election § Blain[edit]
2020 Northern Territory general election: Blain[3][4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labor Mark Turner 1,729 41.4 +4.0
Country Liberal Matthew Kerle 1,489 35.6 +10.2
Territory Alliance Terry Mills 959 23.0 −8.5
Total formal votes 4,177 96.8 N/A
Informal votes 138 3.2 N/A
Turnout 4,315 75.8 N/A
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Mark Turner 2,095 50.2 +1.5
Country Liberal Matthew Kerle 2,082 49.8 −1.5
Labor gain from Territory Alliance Swing+1.5

References
  1. "NT Sports Minister resigns amid sex video scandal". ABC News. 11 June 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  2. "NT election goes down to the wire as final four seats are announced". ABC News. 4 September 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  3. "Electorate summary: Blain". NTEC. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  4. "Blain". ABC Elections. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 7 September 2020.

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