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).

1997 Northern Territory general election

← 1994 30 August 1997 (1997-08-30) 2001 →
All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	79.0 ( 1.7 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Shane Stone Maggie Hickey Party Country Liberal Labor Leader since 26 May 1995 16 April 1996 Leader's seat Port Darwin Barkly Last election 17 seats 7 seats Seats before 16 8 Seats won 18 7 Seat change 2 1 Popular vote 41,722 29,365 Percentage 54.5% 38.5% Swing 2.6 2.9 TPP 57.9% 42.1% TPP 1.6 1.6
Chief Minister before election Shane Stone Country Liberal Elected Chief Minister Shane Stone Country Liberal

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

See also: Results of the Northern Territory general election, 1997

↓ 

18	7
CLP	Labor

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Country Liberal	41,722	54.67	2.76	18	+1
	Labor	29,365	38.48	2.90	7	±0
	Independents	4,327	5.67	0.21	0	-1
	Democrats	484	0.63	0.55	0	±0
	Greens	420	0.55	0.20	0	±0
Total		76,318	100.00	–	25	–
Valid votes		76,318	94.83
Invalid/blank votes		4,161	5.17	+1.2
Total votes		80,479	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		101,886	78.99	-1.7
	Country Liberal		57.9
	Labor		42.1
Total

Popular vote Country Liberal   54.67% Labor   38.48% Democrats   0.63% Greens   0.55% Independents   5.67%

Two-party-preferred vote Country Liberal   57.90% Labor   42.10%

Seats Country Liberal   72.00% Labor   28.00%

Candidates

Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour.

Electorate	Held by	Labor	CLP	Other
Arafura	Labor	Maurice Rioli	Jacob Nayinggul
Araluen	CLP	Lilliah McCulloch	Eric Poole
Arnhem	Labor	Jack Ah Kit	Alan Wright	Lance Lawrence (Ind) Thomas Maywundjiwuy (Grn)
Barkly	Labor	Maggie Hickey	Mark John	Barry Nattrass (Ind)
Blain	CLP	Richard Bawden	Barry Coulter
Braitling	CLP	Peter Brooke	Loraine Braham
Brennan	CLP	Stephen Bennett	Denis Burke
Casuarina	CLP	Douglas McLeod	Peter Adamson
Drysdale	CLP	Paul Nieuwenhoven	Stephen Dunham	Stuart Edwards (Dem)
Fannie Bay	Labor	Clare Martin	Michael Kilgariff
Goyder	CLP	Wayne Connop	Terry McCarthy	Strider (Ind)
Greatorex	CLP	Peter Kavanagh	Richard Lim
Jingili	CLP	Catherine Phillips	Steve Balch	Stephen Barnes (Ind) Ross Forday (Ind)
Karama	CLP	John Tobin	Mick Palmer
Katherine	CLP	Michael Peirce	Mike Reed	Peter Byers (Ind)
MacDonnell	Labor	Mark Wheeler	John Elferink	Kenneth Lechleitner (Ind)
Millner	CLP	Peter O'Hagan	Phil Mitchell	Ian Mills (Ind) June Mills (Grn)
Nelson	Independent	Theresa Francis	Chris Lugg	Dave Tollner (Ind)
Nhulunbuy	Labor	Syd Stirling	Richard Davey
Nightcliff	CLP	Paul Henderson	Stephen Hatton	Theo Katapodis (Ind) Betty McCleary (Ind)
Port Darwin	CLP	Geoffrey Carter	Shane Stone	Lex Martin (Ind)
Sanderson	CLP	Michael Atkinson	Daryl Manzie
Stuart	Labor	Peter Toyne	John Bohning
Victoria River	CLP	Paul La Fontaine	Tim Baldwin
Wanguri	Labor	John Bailey	Peter Styles

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