Northern Territory general election, 2008
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Northern_Territory_general_election,_2008".

Legislative Assembly election, 2008
Party	Vote %		Seats
Labor	43.2	↓8.8	13	↓6
Country Liberal	45.4	↑9.7	11	↑7
Independents			1	↓1
Labor win

General elections were held in the Northern Territory of Australia on 9 August 2008.¹ 23 of the 25 seats in the Legislative Assembly were contested; two safe Labor seats were uncontested. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), led by Chief Minister Paul Henderson won a narrow third term victory against the opposition centre-right Country Liberal Party (CLP), led by Terry Mills. Labor suffered a massive and unexpected swing against it, to hold a one seat majority in the new parliament.²³⁴

Results

Independents: Gerry Wood

Two safe seats were won by the ALP as no CLP candidate was fielded. The Greens ran in six of the 25 seats, averaging around 16 percent.⁷

Background

The first territory election for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in 1974 saw the CLP led by Goff Letts win 17 of 19 seats on 49 per cent of the vote, while the ALP did not win a seat, on 30 per cent.⁸ The CLP retained government under various leaders at each election until 2001, when the ALP led by Clare Martin unexpectedly won government, with 13 of 25 seats. The Martin-led ALP retained government in 2005 on 19 of 25 seats, leaving the CLP with four, the largest result since 1974. Clare Martin resigned as Chief Minister on the 26th November 2007 with Paul Henderson the then Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Employment, Education and Training taking over as Chief Minister with Marion Scrymgour as Deputy.

Key dates

• Issue of writ: 22 July
• Close of roll: 8pm 24 July
• Close of nominations: 12 noon 28 July
• Postal voting commences: 31 July
• Pre-poll voting commences: 4 August
• Polling Day: 9 August

Retiring members

The following members did not seek another term at the election.

Labor

• Clare Martin (Fannie Bay)
• Syd Stirling (Nhulunbuy)
• Eliot McAdam (Barkly)

Country Liberal

• Fay Miller (Katherine)

Independent

• Loraine Braham (Braitling)

Candidates

Sitting members are in bold.

Northern Territory
Electorate	Held by	Labor Candidate	Country Liberal Candidate	Greens Candidate	Independent Candidates
Arafura	Labor	Marion Scrymgour	Angie Seibert Tristan Mungatopi		Jone Lotu
Araluen	Country Liberal	John Gaynor	Jodeen Carney	Linda Chellew
Arnhem	Labor	Malarndirri (Barbara) McCarthy Elected Unopposed
Barkly	Labor	Gerry McCarthy	Mick Adams		Barry Nattrass Randall Gould
Blain	Country Liberal	Ken Vowles	Terry Mills
Braitling	Independent	Aaron Dick	Adam Giles	Jane Clark	Eli Melky
Brennan	Labor	James Burke	Peter Chandler
Casuarina	Labor	Kon Vatskalis	Gary Haslett
Daly	Labor	Rob Knight	Wayne Connop	David Pollock	August Stevens
Drysdale	notional Country Liberal	Chris Natt	Ross Bohlin		Justin Tutty
Fannie Bay	Labor	Michael Gunner	Garry Lambert
Fong Lim	notional Labor	Matthew Bonson	Dave Tollner
Goyder	notional Country Liberal	Ted Warren	Kezia Purick
Greatorex	Country Liberal	Jo Nixon	Matt Conlan	Lenny Aronsten
Johnston	Labor	Chris Burns	Jo Sangster
Karama	Labor	Delia Lawrie	Tony Bacus		Dorothy Fox Natalie Hunter
Katherine	Country Liberal	Sharon Hillen	Willem Westra Van Holthe		Toni Tapp Coutts
Macdonnell	Labor	Alison Anderson Elected Unopposed
Nelson	Independent	Justine Luders-Searle	Maureen Kohlman		Gerry Wood
Nhulunbuy	Labor	Lynne Walker	Djwalpi Marika
Nightcliff	Labor	Jane Aagaard	Peter Manning	Emma Young
Port Darwin	Labor	Kerry Sacilotto	John Elferink	Gary Abbott
Sanderson	Labor	Len Kiely	Peter Styles
Stuart	Labor	Karl Hampton	Rex Granites Japanangka
Wanguri	Labor	Paul Henderson	Kerrie Kyriacou		Dean Duncan

References

External links

Electoral sites

• Northern Territory Electoral Commission website

Media sites

• ABC NT Election website

Party sites

• Australian Labor Party (NT) website
• Country Liberal Party website
• Northern Territory Greens website

v • d • e Politics of the Northern Territory Administrator Tom Pauling • Former Administrators Chief Minister Paul Henderson • Former Chief Ministers Opposition Leader Terry Mills • Former Opposition Leaders Speaker of the Assembly Jane Aagaard • Former Speakers Legislature Current assembly • Former legislatures • Legislative Council Ministries Current ministry • Past ministries Political parties Australian Labor Party • Country Liberal Party • Northern Territory Greens • Northern Territory Nationals Elections 2005 election • 2008 election • Past elections • Past by-elections • Electoral divisions Current issues Northern Territory National Emergency Response Other Australian politics Federal • ACT • New South Wales • Queensland • South Australia • Tasmania • Victoria • Western Australia

v • d • e  Northern Territory general elections 1974 · 1977 · 1980 · 1983 · 1987 · 1990 · 1994 · 1997 · 2001 · 2005  · 2008  Northern Territory referendums 1998

v • d • e Politics of Australia Commonwealth Parliament · House of Representatives · Senate · High Court · Lower courts · Queen · Governor-General · Prime Minister · Cabinet · Executive Council · Ministry Federal elections pre-1969 · 1969 · 1972 · 1974 · 1975 · 1977 · 1980 · 1983 · 1984 · 1987 · 1990 · 1993 · 1996 · 1998 · 2001 · 2004 · 2007 · next State/territory elections ACT (2008 election) · NSW (2007 election) · NT (2008 election) · QLD (2006 election) · SA (2010 election) · TAS (2006 election) · VIC (2006 election) · WA (2008 election) Political parties Australian Greens · Australian Labor Party · Family First Party · Liberal Party of Australia · National Party of Australia · Micro-parties