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.

1983 Northern Territory general election

← 1980 3 December 1983 (1983-12-03) 1987 →
All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	81.6% ( 3.6 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Paul Everingham Bob Collins Party Country Liberal Labor Leader since 13 August 1977 2 November 1981 Leader's seat Jingili Arafura Last election 11 seats 7 seats Seats won 19 6 Seat change 8 1 Popular vote 28,637 17,505 Percentage 58.2% 35.6% Swing 8.2 3.8 TPP 61.1% 38.9%
Chief Minister before election Paul Everingham Country Liberal Elected Chief Minister Paul Everingham Country Liberal

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

See also: Results of the Northern Territory general election, 1983

↓ 

19	6
CLP	Labor

Summary of the results of the 1983 Northern Territory general election, Legislative Assembly^[1][2]

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Country Liberal	28,637	58.22	8.25	19	8
	Labor	17,505	35.59	3.80	6	1
	Independents	2,155	4.38	3.72	0	1
	Democrats	887	1.80	0.92	0
Total		49,184	100.00	–	25	–
Valid votes		49,184	96.98
Invalid/blank votes		1,532	3.02	0.37
Total votes		50,716	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		62,185	81.56	12.49
	Country Liberal		61.1
	Labor		38.9
Total

Popular vote Country Liberal   58.22% Labor   35.59% Democrats   1.80% Independents   4.38%

Two-party-preferred vote Country Liberal   61.10% Labor   38.90%

Seats Country Liberal   76.00% Labor   24.00%

Candidates

Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour. Where there is possible confusion, an asterisk is used.

Electorate	Held by	Labor	CLP	Other
Arafura	New	Bob Collins	Robert Woodward	Kevin Doolan (Dem)
Araluen	New	Allen Joy	Jim Robertson	Goff Letts (Ind)
Arnhem	Labor	Wes Lanhupuy	David Amos David Daniels	Klaus Roth (Dem)
Barkly	CLP	Charles Hallett	Ian Tuxworth
Berrimah	New	Colin Young	Barry Coulter
Braitling	New	Ross Kerridge	Roger Vale
Casuarina	CLP	Lionel Crompton	Nick Dondas
Elsey	CLP	Trevor Surplice	Roger Steele	James Forscutt (Ind)
Fannie Bay	Labor	Pam O'Neil	Marshall Perron	Gerald Luck (Ind)
Flynn	New	Peter Hughes	Ray Hanrahan	Pamela Gardiner (Ind)
Jingili	CLP	Martin Jacob	Paul Everingham
Koolpinyah	New	Robert Wesley-Smith	Noel Padgham-Purich	Murray Leeder (Dem) Michael Sanderson (Ind)
Leanyer	New	John Waters	Mick Palmer
Ludmilla	CLP	Allan O'Neil	Col Firmin
Macdonnell	Labor	Neil Bell	Ian McKinlay	Ted Hampton (Dem)
Millner	Labor	Terry Smith	Lorraine Palfy	Christopher Fenner (Ind)
Nhulunbuy	Labor	Dan Leo	Kevin Graetz
Nightcliff	Independent	Colin Dyer	Stephen Hatton	Dawn Lawrie (Ind)
Port Darwin	CLP	Russel Kearney	Tom Harris
Sadadeen	New	Morgan Flint	Denis Collins
Sanderson	Labor	June D'Rozario	Daryl Manzie
Stuart	CLP	Brian Ede	Bobby Liddle
Victoria River	Labor	Dennis Bree	Terry McCarthy* Ronald Wright	Jack Doolan (Ind) Maurie Ryan (Dem)
Wagaman	New	Brian Reid	Fred Finch
Wanguri	New	Pat Burke	Don Dale	Edward Miller (Ind)

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