2014 Blain by-election

2014 Blain by-election

12 April 2014

First party Second party   Candidate Nathan Barrett Geoff Bahnert Party Country Liberal Labor Popular vote 1,768 1,448 Percentage 45.5% 37.3% Swing 16.0pp 3.7pp TPP 53.2% 46.8% TPP swing 10.0pp 10.0pp

MP before election Terry Mills Country Liberal Elected MP Nathan Barrett Country Liberal

A by-election for the seat of Blain in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was held on 12 April 2014. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Country Liberal Party (CLP) member and former Northern Territory Chief Minister Terry Mills. Mills resigned in reaction to being removed as CLP leader and Chief Minister in March 2013 in a party room coup by Adam Giles. The CLP margin in the Palmerston-based seat was 13.2 points. ^[1]

On 3 April 2014, a week after the writ was issued for the by-election, three indigenous CLP MPs resigned from the party and moved to the crossbench. Had the CLP failed to hold Blain, it would have been reduced to a minority government and would have needed the support of at least one of the four independents to stay in office. Although Blain was a comfortably safe CLP seat on paper, the average swing against governments at by-elections in greater Darwin/Palmerston was 12 per cent. ^[1]

Candidates

The five candidates in ballot paper order were: ^[1]

Candidate nominations
Party		Candidate	Background
	Citizens Electoral Council	Peter Flynn	Navy officer, Earth moving contractor. Contested Lingiari at the 2010 and 2013 federal elections. [1]
	Labor Party	Geoff Bahnert	Professional sportsman, business operator, Police Senior Sergeant. Contested Blain at the 2012 election. [1]
	Country Liberal Party	Nathan Barrett	Teacher, business operator, port worker. [1]
	Independent	Matthew Cranitch	Northern Territory Australian Education Union President. [1]
	NT Greens	Sue McKinnon	City of Palmerston Councillor. Contested Blain at the 2005 election. [1]

Results

Blain by-election, 2014 ^{[2] [3]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Country Liberal	Nathan Barrett	1,768	45.5	−16.0
	Labor	Geoff Bahnert	1,448	37.3	+3.7
	Independent	Matthew Cranitch	336	8.7	+8.7
	Greens	Sue McKinnon	275	7.1	+7.1
	Citizens Electoral Council	Peter Flynn	56	1.4	+1.4
Total formal votes			3,883	95.5	−1.1
Informal votes			184	4.5	+1.1
Turnout			4,067	68.8	−14.4
Two-party-preferred result
	Country Liberal	Nathan Barrett	2,067	53.2	−10.0
	Labor	Geoff Bahnert	1,816	46.8	+10.0
	Country Liberal hold		Swing	−10.0

A recheck of all election night counts was conducted on Sunday 13 April, and early distribution of preferences was carried out on Tuesday 15 April. Final vote figures were published by NTEC on the evening of 22 April—the deadline for arrival of postal votes. ^[2]

The CLP claimed victory on election night, with the night's count indicating they had retained the seat by a 3.2 per cent margin on a two-party-preferred basis, with a 10 per cent swing against them. ^[4] The official declaration of the poll took place on the morning of Wednesday 16 April 2014. ^[2] Despite coming close to winning the seat, Bahnert was not again the ALP candidate for Blain at the 2016 election.

Opinion polling

Date	Firm	Sample size	Primary vote				2PP vote
			CLP	ALP	IND	OTH	CLP	ALP
12 Apr 2014	2014 by-election		45.5%	37.3%	8.7%	8.5%	53.2%	46.8%
11 Apr 2014	NT News [5]	200	40.8%	39.2%	12.5%	7.5%	51%	49%
7 Apr 2014	Matthew Cranitch [6]	150	31%	35%	23%	10%	—	—
25 Aug 2012	2012 election		61.6%	33.6%	—	4.9%	63.2%	36.8%

See also

• List of Northern Territory by-elections

References

1. 2014 Blain by-election: Antony Green ABC
2. Legislative Assembly By-Election - Blain Archived 2014-04-13 at the Wayback Machine , Northern Territory Electoral Commission, 13 April 2014.
3. 2014 Blain by-election results, ABC, 13 April 2014.
4. "Blain by-election: Country Liberals claim victory in Blain by-election and a return to majority government". ABC News. 12 April 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
5. Smee, Ben (11 April 2014). "Exclusive poll shows CLP slightly ahead of Labor 51-49 on two-party preferred basis in Blain". The Daily Telegraph. NT News. Archived from the original on 20 November 2025. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
6. Jones, Ruby (7 April 2014). "Country Liberals deny pork-barrelling seat of Blain with $57 million for new schools". ABC News. Archived from the original on 20 November 2025. Retrieved 20 November 2025.

External links

• 2014 Blain by-election: Antony Green ABC
• 2014 Blain by-election: NTEC