1990 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 27 October 1990, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Marshall Perron.

1990 Northern Territory general election

27 October 1990 (1990-10-27)
All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 13 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	81.6 ( 10.4 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Marshall Perron Terry Smith Ian Tuxworth Party Country Liberal Labor Nationals Leader since 14 July 1988 19 August 1986 10 May 1986 Leader's seat Fannie Bay Millner Barkly (lost Goyder) Last election 16 seats 6 seats 2 seats Seats won 14 9 seats 0 Seat change 2 3 2 Popular vote 31,758 23,827 3,060 Percentage 48.8% 36.6% 4.7% Swing 9.4 0.6 13.1 TPP 57.0% 43.0% TPP 0.3 0.3
Chief Minister before election Marshall Perron Country Liberal Elected Chief Minister Marshall Perron Country Liberal

The CLP's political strategy for the campaign, devised by the Chief Minister's media secretary, Tony-Barker May, involved attacking the opposition ALP's policy platform, and using the costings as the basis of a 'where's the money coming from?' media assault. Although the Chief Minister was ill for much of the campaign, government ministers made challenging statements every day.

The CLP also used the services of conservative social researcher Mark Textor, subsequently co-head of Crosby Textor Group, who made accurate polling predictions during this election, outperforming internal ALP polling and independent public polling. The result came as a surprise to most except for CLP insiders.

Six months prior to the election, polling showed the CLP was headed for a big loss. However, the CLP government remained in power with an increase of over 9% to its primary vote, holding 14 of the 25 seats, with the ALP opposition gaining 3 seats for a total of 9 seats in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, the Northern Territory Nationals contested the election again, but lost both of their seats. The 1990 election also saw the Greens emerge in territory politics, with 3.05% of the vote—fourth behind the CLP, Labor and the Nationals.

Independents Noel Padgham-Purich and Denis Collins were both re-elected.

The NT Nationals lost both seats of Barkly and Flynn.

Retiring MPs

Labor

• Dan Leo MLA (Nhulunbuy)

Country Liberal

• Tom Harris MLA (Port Darwin)

Results

See also: Results of the Northern Territory general election, 1990

↓ 

14	2	9
CLP	Ind	Labor

Summary of the results of the 1990 Northern Territory general election, Legislative Assembly

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Country Liberal	31,758	48.83	9.41	14	2
	Labor	23,827	36.64	0.69	9	3
	Independents	4,410	6.78	0.07	2
	NT Nationals	3,060	4.71	13.08	0	1
	Greens	1,981	3.05	New	0
Total		65,036	100.00	–	25	–
Valid votes		65,036	96.90
Invalid/blank votes		2,081	3.10	1.04
Total votes		67,117	100.00	–
Registered voters/turnout		82,261	81.59	10.41

Popular vote Country Liberal   48.83% Labor   36.63% NT Nationals   4.71% Greens   3.05% Independents   6.78%

Two-party-preferred vote Country Liberal   57.00% Labor   43.00%

Seats Country Liberal   56.00% Labor   36.00% Independents   8.00%

Candidates

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

Electorate	Held by	Labor candidate	CLP candidate	Nationals candidates	Other candidates
Arafura	Labor	Stan Tipiloura	Barry Puruntatameri
Araluen	CLP	Brian Doolan	Eric Poole	Enzo Floreani
Arnhem	Labor	Wes Lanhupuy	Tony Hayward-Ryan		Rod Ansell (Ind)
Barkly	National	Maggie Hickey	Paul Ruger	Kenneth Purvis	Tony Boulter (Ind) Charles Hallett (Ind)
Braitling	CLP	Matthew Storey	Roger Vale	Damien Ward	Leslie Oldfield (Ind)
Brennan	CLP	Ian Fraser	Max Ortmann		Col Firmin (Ind)
Casuarina	CLP	Rod Ellis	Nick Dondas	Lea Rosenwax
Fannie Bay	CLP	Paul Costigan	Marshall Perron		Bob Ellis (Grn) Strider (Ind)
Goyder	CLP	Jack Ah Kit	Terry McCarthy	Ian Tuxworth	Kezia Purick (Ind) Louise Size (Grn) Thomas Starr (Ind)
Greatorex	Independent	Harold Furber	Robert Kennedy	David Johannsen	Denis Collins (Ind)
Jingili	CLP	Fiona Stuchbery	Rick Setter		Penelope Thomson (Ind)
Karama	CLP	Margaret Gillespie	Mick Palmer	Janet Durling
Katherine	CLP	Phil Maynard	Mike Reed	Jim Forscutt	Laurie Hughes (Ind)
Leanyer	CLP	Jim Davidson	Fred Finch	Alan MacKenzie
MacDonnell	Labor	Neil Bell	Brendan Heenan Alison Hunt
Millner	Labor	Terry Smith	Janice Collins
Nelson	Independent	Peter Ivinson	David Sanderson	Graeme Gow	Noel Padgham-Purich (Ind)
Nhulunbuy	Labor	Syd Stirling	Susan McClure
Nightcliff	CLP	David Pettigrew	Stephen Hatton		John Dunham (Grn)
Palmerston	CLP	Chris Draffin	Barry Coulter	Ronald Wright	Timothy Fowler (Grn)
Port Darwin	CLP	Peter Cavanagh	Shane Stone	David Fuller	Jessie Kearney (Grn)
Sanderson	CLP	Alan Perrin	Daryl Manzie		Graeme Parsons (Grn) Andrew Wrenn (Ind)
Stuart	Labor	Brian Ede	Eric Pananka Alexander Nelson
Victoria River	CLP	Gary Cartwright	Stephen Dunham
Wanguri	Labor	John Bailey	John Hare

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1990				Swing	Post-1990
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Barkly		NT Nationals	Ian Tuxworth	5.9	6.6	0.7	Maggie Hickey	Labor
Victoria River		Country Liberal	Terry McCarthy	9.5	11.0	1.5	Gary Cartwright	Labor

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
Goyder	Terry McCarthy	CLP	4.1 v IND
Fairly safe
Sanderson	Daryl Manzie	CLP	9.0
Jingili	Rick Setter	CLP	9.2
Safe
Fannie Bay	Marshall Perron	CLP	10.0
Brennan	Max Ortmann	CLP	10.1
Karama	Mick Palmer	CLP	10.8
Casuarina	Nick Dondas	CLP	11.5
Port Darwin	Shane Stone	CLP	11.6
Palmerston	Barry Coulter	CLP	11.7
Leanyer	Fred Finch	CLP	11.9
Nightcliff	Stephen Hatton	CLP	12.1
Very safe
Araluen	Eric Poole	CLP	20.9
Katherine	Mike Reed	CLP	21.0
Braitling	Roger Vale	CLP	26.2

Labor seats
Marginal
Barkly	Maggie Hickey	ALP	0.7
Victoria River	Gary Cartwright	ALP	1.5
Fairly safe
Wanguri	John Bailey	ALP	6.2
Millner	Terry Smith	ALP	6.7
Nhulunbuy	Syd Stirling	ALP	9.1
Safe
Arnhem	Wes Lanhupuy	ALP	11.2
Macdonnell	Neil Bell	ALP	13.5
Arafura	Stan Tipiloura	ALP	16.5
Stuart	Brian Ede	ALP	17.0
Independent seats
Greatorex	Denis Collins	IND	2.5 v CLP
Nelson	Noel Padgham-Purich	IND	13.7 v CLP

References

• Northern Territory Electoral Commission