| Election Name: | 2020 Northern Territory general election |
| Country: | Northern Territory |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Turnout: | 74.9% (0.9 pp) |
| Previous Election: | 2016 Northern Territory general election |
| Previous Year: | 2016 |
| Next Election: | 2024 Northern Territory general election |
| Next Year: | 2024 |
| Seats For Election: | All 25 seats in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly |
| Majority Seats: | 13 |
| Election Date: | 22 August 2020 |
| Opinion Polls: |
|
| Leader1: | Michael Gunner |
| Leader Since1: | 20 April 2015 |
| Party1: | Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch) |
| Leaders Seat1: | Fannie Bay |
| Popular Vote1: | 40,291 |
| Percentage1: | 39.43% |
| Swing1: | 2.76 |
| Last Election1: | 18 seats |
| Seats Before1: | 17 |
| Seats1: | 14 |
| Seat Change1: | 4 |
| Leader2: | Lia Finocchiaro |
| Leader Since2: | 1 February 2020 |
| Party2: | Country Liberal Party |
| Leaders Seat2: | Spillett |
| Popular Vote2: | 32,021 |
| Percentage2: | 31.34% |
| Swing2: | 0.46 |
| Last Election2: | 2 seats |
| Seats Before2: | 2 |
| Seats2: | 8 |
| Seat Change2: | 6 |
| Leader3: | Terry Mills |
| Leader Since3: | November 2019 |
| Party3: | Territory Alliance |
| Leaders Seat3: | Blain (lost seat) |
| Popular Vote3: | 13,184 |
| Percentage3: | 12.90% |
| Swing3: | 12.90 |
| Last Election3: | Did not exist |
| Seats Before3: | 3 |
| Seats3: | 1 |
| Seat Change3: | 1 |
| 1Blank: | TPP |
| 1Data1: | 53.3% |
| 1Data2: | 46.7% |
| 2Blank: | TPP swing |
| 2Data1: | 3.9 |
| 2Data2: | 3.9 |
| Chief Minister | |
| Before Election: | Michael Gunner |
| Before Party: | Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch) |
| After Election: | Michael Gunner |
| After Party: | Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory Branch) |
The 2020 Northern Territory general election was held on 22 August 2020 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.
Members were elected through full preferential instant-runoff voting in single-member electorates, after the optional preferential voting system introduced for the 2016 election was abolished by the Electoral Legislation Amendment Act 2019 in April 2019.[1] The election was conducted by the Northern Territory Electoral Commission, an independent body answerable to Parliament.
The incumbent centre-left Labor Party (ALP) majority government, led by Chief Minister Michael Gunner, won a second consecutive four-year term of government. It defeated the centre-right Country Liberal Party (CLP) opposition, led by Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro, and the regionalist big-tent Territory Alliance (TA) party, led by former Chief Minister Terry Mills.
ABC election analyst Antony Green called the election for the Labor Party nearly three hours after the polls closed.[2] [3] At the time it was not known if the party would claim a majority of seats, though on 24 August the ABC projected Labor had retained majority government.[4] When the counting of votes concluded, Labor finished with 14 seats, enough for a two-seat majority on the floor of the Assembly. The Country Liberals won 8 seats, a gain of six from their landslide loss in the previous election, whilst 2 independents and 1 Territory Alliance candidate were elected.[5] The new Gunner Ministry was sworn in on 8 September 2020.[6]
At the 2016 election, the one-term incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) minority government, led by Chief Minister Adam Giles, was defeated by the Labor Party Opposition, led by Opposition Leader Michael Gunner. The CLP suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government in the history of the Territory, and one of the worst defeats of a sitting government in the history of Australia. It was the first time that a sitting Northern Territory government was defeated after only one term. From 11 seats at dissolution (and 16 after the 2012 election), the CLP suffered the worst election performance in its history, winning only two seats. Labor won 18 seats, in the process winning the third-largest majority government in Territory history. Independents won five seats. With only two members in the CLP caucus, Gary Higgins became opposition leader and CLP leader while Lia Finocchiaro became deputy CLP leader on 2 September. Although the independent MPs outnumbered the CLP MPs, on official advice the CLP was recognised as the official opposition.[7]
Additionally, Giles lost his seat of Braitling to Labor, making him only the second Chief Minister/Majority Leader and the third CLP leader to lose their seat at an election. Along with the seat of Katherine, the election represented the first time Labor had won a seat in Alice Springs or Katherine.[8]
With the overall result beyond doubt, Gunner had himself, Natasha Fyles, and Nicole Manison sworn in as an interim three-person government on 31 August until the full Gunner Ministry could be sworn in on 12 September.[9] [10] [11]
The position of Speaker of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly had been held by former CLP-turned-independent MP Kezia Purick since 23 October 2012. Despite Labor's massive majority following the 2016 election, the incoming Labor government re-appointed Purick as Speaker.[12]
The composition of the Assembly was unchanged for over two years, with Labor Party holding 18 seats, the Country Liberal Party two and the remaining five by independents. In December 2018, the Labor Government dismissed three sitting members of the parliamentary party; the Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ken Vowles, Assistant Minister Jeff Collins and backbencher Scott McConnell.[13] The trio were dismissed after publicly criticising the government's handling of the territory's long-term economic situation, following a report finding the budget to be in "structural deficit" with expenditure struggling to cover previous borrowings and day-to-day costs.[14] They consequently became independents and sat on the crossbench. McConnell later announced he would not re-contest his seat at the election, though did end up running for the adjacent seat of Braitling.[15]
In August 2019, Terry Mills, the independent member for the seat of Blain, announced the formation of a new regionalist big tent party known as Territory Alliance.[16] Mills had previously been the leader of the CLP and was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory following the Country Liberal Party's (CLP) victory at the 2012 election. He was usurped for the leadership of the party by Adam Giles only six months into his Chief Ministership, defeated 11–5 in a party-room ballot. With Mills' presence in the Assembly, the new Territory Alliance held one seat. This increased to three seats in March 2020 when Jeff Collins (expelled by Labor in December 2018) and Robyn Lambley (the former deputy CLP leader who was re-elected as an independent in 2016) announced they had joined the party, taking Territory Alliance's representation in the Assembly to three seats.[17] With more members in the Assembly than the CLP, Alliance sought to claim official opposition status, though they were defeated 5–3 in a secret Assembly ballot of non-Government MPs and the CLP retained opposition status, with Lia Finocchiaro remaining as Opposition Leader.[18] [19]
With Scott McConnell having announced his retirement at the election and Jeff Collins becoming a member of the Territory Alliance, Ken Vowles, the remaining member of the Labor trio to be expelled by the party, announced his immediate resignation from the Assembly in November 2019.[20] This decision necessitated a by-election in the seat of Johnston to replace Vowles. The by-election was held on 29 February 2020 and was won by Labor candidate Joel Bowden, who claimed 52.6% of the two-candidate preferred vote. Labor's primary vote collapsed more than 21 points, making the seat a marginal contest at the general election. The Territory Alliance candidate usurped the Greens and CLP candidates into second place (47.4% of the two-candidate preferred vote), with the CLP primary vote dropping by more than 15 points and the party finishing in fourth place.
The parliament has fixed four-year terms, with elections to be held on the fourth Saturday of August every four years.[21]
Key dates in relation to the election were:[22]
A boundary redistribution for electoral divisions in the Northern Territory commenced on 27 February 2019, with the boundary commission releasing its report of the final boundaries on 4 September 2019.[23]
| Labor seats | ||||
| Marginal | ||||
| Katherine | Sandra Nelson | ALP | 1.6 | |
| Brennan | Tony Sievers | ALP | 2.6 | |
| Port Darwin | Paul Kirby | ALP | 2.8 | |
| Braitling | Dale Wakefield | ALP | 3.0 | |
| Drysdale | Eva Lawler | ALP | 5.2 | |
| Fairly safe | ||||
| Arafura | Lawrence Costa | ALP | 7.3 | |
| Safe | ||||
| Arnhem | Selena Uibo | ALP | 10.5 | |
| Sanderson | Kate Worden | ALP | 10.5 | |
| Casuarina | Lauren Moss | ALP | 11.5 | |
| Karama | Ngaree Ah Kit | ALP | 12.3 | |
| Fannie Bay | Michael Gunner | ALP | 12.5 | |
| Johnston | Joel Bowden | ALP | 15.7 | |
| Barkly | Gerry McCarthy | ALP | 15.9 | |
| Wanguri | Nicole Manison | ALP | 19.9 | |
| Gwoja | Scott McConnell | IND | 22.2 | |
| Nightcliff | Natasha Fyles | ALP | 26.7 | |
| Country Liberal seats | |||
| Marginal | |||
| Daly | Gary Higgins | CLP | 1.7 |
| Namatjira | Chansey Paech | ALP | 2.0 |
| Safe | |||
| Spillett | Lia Finocchiaro | CLP | 15.3 |
| Territory Alliance seats | |||
| Marginal | |||
| Blain | Terry Mills | TA | 1.4 v ALP |
| Fong Lim | Jeff Collins | TA | 5.6 (ALP v CLP) |
| Fairly safe | |||
| Araluen | Robyn Lambley | TA | 8.6 v CLP |
| Independent seats | |||
| Mulka | Yingiya Mark Guyula | IND | 0.1 v ALP |
| Nelson | Gerry Wood | IND | 23.0 v CLP |
| Goyder | Kezia Purick | IND | 25.3 v CLP |
| Labor seats | ||||
| Marginal | ||||
| Blain | Mark Turner | ALP | 0.2 | |
| Arnhem | Selena Uibo | ALP | 1.6 v IND | |
| Port Darwin | Paul Kirby | ALP | 2.1 | |
| Fong Lim | Mark Monaghan | ALP | 2.6 | |
| Arafura | Lawrence Costa | ALP | 3.6 | |
| Fairly safe | ||||
| Drysdale | Eva Lawler | ALP | 7.9 | |
| Fannie Bay | Michael Gunner | ALP | 9.6 | |
| Karama | Ngaree Ah Kit | ALP | 9.8 | |
| Safe | ||||
| Casuarina | Lauren Moss | ALP | 15.9 | |
| Gwoja | Chansey Paech | ALP | 16.2 | |
| Johnston | Joel Bowden | ALP | 16.5 | |
| Wanguri | Nicole Manison | ALP | 17.3 | |
| Sanderson | Kate Worden | ALP | 19.3 | |
| Nightcliff | Natasha Fyles | ALP | 24.3 | |
| Country Liberal seats | |||
| Marginal | |||
| Barkly | Steve Edgington | CLP | 0.1 |
| Namatjira | Bill Yan | CLP | 0.3 |
| Brennan | Marie-Clare Boothby | CLP | 1.2 |
| Daly | Ian Sloan | CLP | 1.2 |
| Braitling | Joshua Burgoyne | CLP | 1.3 |
| Katherine | Jo Hersey | CLP | 2.3 |
| Fairly safe | |||
| Nelson | Gerard Maley | CLP | 8.3 v IND |
| Safe | |||
| Spillett | Lia Finocchiaro | CLP | 15.0 |
| Crossbench seats | |||
| Araluen | Robyn Lambley | TA | 0.5 v CLP |
| Mulka | Yingiya Mark Guyula | IND | 5.0 v ALP |
| Goyder | Kezia Purick | IND | 6.8 v CLP |
At the time of the election, eight parties were registered with the Northern Territory Electoral Commission (NTEC).[27]
| Date | Firm | Primary vote | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALP | CLP | TA | Ind | OTH | |||||
| 29 June 2020 | uComms[28] | 34% | 29% | 11% | – | 13%* | |||
| September 2019 | MediaReach[29] | 29% | 39% | – | 22% | 10% | |||
| 2016 election | 42.2% | 31.8% | – | 18.8% | 7.2% | ||||
| |||||||||
There were 111 candidates who nominated for the election—the second-highest number of candidates in a Territory election, just under the 115 who nominated in 2016.[34]
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 candidate | CLP candidate | Territory Alliance candidate | Greens candidate | Other candidates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawrence Costa | Gibson Illortaminni | George Laughton | Tristan Mungatopi (Ind) | |||||||
| Jackson Ankers | Damien Ryan | Robyn Lambley | Bernard Hickey | Domenico Pecorari (AFP) Wayne Wright (Ind) | ||||||
| Selena Uibo | Jerry Amato | Ian Mongunu Gumbula (Ind) Lance Lawrence (Ind) | ||||||||
| Sid Vashist | Gadrian Hoosan (Ind) Daniel Mulholland (Ind) | |||||||||
| Matthew Kerle | Terry Mills | |||||||||
| Dale Wakefield | Dale McIver | Chris Tomlins | Marli Banks (AFP) Kim Hopper (Ind) Scott McConnell (-) | |||||||
| Tony Sievers | Abraham Mbemap | Peter Chandler (Ind) | ||||||||
| Lauren Moss | Tony Schelling | Danial Kelly | Kendall Trudgen | |||||||
| Anthony Venes | Regina McCarthy | Will Kemp | Mick Denigan (Ind) | |||||||
| Eva Lawler | Leanne Butler | Fiona Lynch | Danielle Eveleigh (Ind) Brendan Killalea (Ind) Lash Lisson (BFFCPW) Raj Samson (Ind. UAP) | |||||||
| Michael Gunner | Tracey Hayes | Rebecca Jennings | Peter Robertson | Mark Mackenzie (Ind) | ||||||
| Kylie Bonanni | Jeff Collins | Amye Un (Ind) | ||||||||
| Mick Taylor | Phil Battye | Rachael Wright | Karen Fletcher | Pauline Cass (Ind) Trevor Jenkins (-) Kezia Purick* (Ind) Ted Warren (Ind) | ||||||
| Chansey Paech | Phillip Alice | Kenny Lechleitner (AFP) | ||||||||
| Joel Bowden | Gary Haslett | Steven Klose | Aiya Goodrich Carttling | Josh Thomas (Ind) | ||||||
| Ngaree Ah Kit | Brian O'Gallagher | Caleb Cardno | ||||||||
| Kate Ganley | Melanie Usher | Clinton Booth (Ind) | ||||||||
| Yingiya Mark Guyula (Ind) | ||||||||||
| Sheralee Taylor | Matt Paterson | Nikki McCoy | Catherine Satour (AFP) Tony Willis (Ind) | |||||||
| Steve Asher | Andy Harley | Beverley Ratahi (Ind) | ||||||||
| Natasha Fyles | Steve Doherty | Melita McKinnon | Billee McGinley | Shelley Landmark (AJP) | ||||||
| Paul Kirby | Toby George | Gary Strachan | Timothy Parish | Leah Potter (Ind) | ||||||
| Kate Worden | Derek Mayger | Amelia Nuku | ||||||||
| Tristan Sloan | Lia Finocchiaro | Vanessa Mounsey | ||||||||
| Nicole Manison | Jed Hansen | Michael Best |
See main article: Results of the 2020 Northern Territory general election.
| 14 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |
| ALP | Ind | TA | CLP |
| align=center colspan=10 | |||||||||
| Party | Votes | % | +/- | Seats | +/- | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | 40,291 | 39.43 | 2.76 | 14 | 4 | ||||
| Country Liberal | 32,021 | 31.34 | 0.46 | 8 | 6 | ||||
| Territory Alliance | 13,184 | 12.90 | New | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Independents | 10,977 | 10.74 | 8.09 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Greens | 4,453 | 4.46 | 1.49 | 0 | |||||
| Australian Federation | 942 | 0.92 | New | 0 | |||||
| Ban Fracking Fix Crime Protect Water | 226 | 0.22 | 3.36 | 0 | |||||
| Animal Justice | 78 | 0.08 | New | 0 | |||||
| Formal votes | 102,172 | 96.54 | −1.46 | ||||||
| Informal votes | 3,661 | 3.46 | +1.46 | ||||||
| Total | 105,833 | 100 | 25 | ||||||
| Registered voters / turnout | 141,255 | 74.94 | +0.92 | ||||||
| Two-party-preferred vote[37] | |||||||||
| Labor | 53.3 | 3.9 | |||||||
| Country Liberal | 46.7 | 3.9 | |||||||
Both incumbent independent MLAs running for reelection, Yingiya Mark Guyula and Kezia Purick, retained their seats, but long-serving independent Gerry Wood was succeeded by a CLP candidate in Nelson. The Territory Alliance won a single seat, with Robyn Lambley narrowly holding her seat of Araluen; party leader Terry Mills and Jeff Collins both lost their seats.
Members in italics did not re-contest their seats at this election. Margins are notional estimates by Antony Green.[38]
| Seat | Pre-election | Swing | Post-election | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Member | Margin | Margin | Member | Party | ||||||
| Barkly | Labor | Gerry McCarthy | 15.9 | 16.0 | 0.1 | Steve Edgington | Country Liberal | ||||
| Blain | Territory Alliance | Terry Mills | 1.4 (IND) | N/A | 0.2 | Mark Turner | Labor | ||||
| Braitling | Labor | Dale Wakefield | 3.0 | 4.3 | 1.3 | Joshua Burgoyne | Country Liberal | ||||
| Brennan | Labor | Tony Sievers | 2.6 | 3.8 | 1.2 | Marie-Clare Boothby | Country Liberal | ||||
| Fong Lim | Territory Alliance | Jeff Collins | 5.6 (ALP) | −3.0 | 2.6 | Mark Monaghan | Labor | ||||
| Katherine | Labor | Sandra Nelson | 1.6 | 3.9 | 2.3 | Jo Hersey | Country Liberal | ||||
| Namatjira | Labor | Chansey Paech | −2.0* | −1.7 | 0.3 | Bill Yan | Country Liberal | ||||
| Nelson | Independent | Gerry Wood | 23.0 | 31.2 | 8.3 | Gerard Maley | Country Liberal | ||||