Blain Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly | |||||||||||||||
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Territory | Northern Territory | ||||||||||||||
Created | 1997 | ||||||||||||||
MP | Matthew Kerle | ||||||||||||||
Party | Country Liberal Party | ||||||||||||||
Namesake | Adair Blain | ||||||||||||||
Electors | 5,695 (2020) | ||||||||||||||
Area | 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
Demographic | Urban | ||||||||||||||
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Blain is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997 and is named after Adair Blain, the second member for the federal Northern Territory electorate, and the only Australian sitting federal MP to ever become a prisoner of war. Blain is an urban electorate, covering 4 km² and taking in Palmerston suburbs of Bellamack and Woodroffe and the suburb of Moulden. There were 5,695 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2020.
The current member for Blain is Matthew Kerle, who was elected for the NLP at the 2024 election.
For the better part of four decades, Palmerston was reckoned as a bastion of conservatism, and all the seats in the city were usually held by the Country Liberal Party. For the first three decades of its existence, Blain was reckoned as a particularly safe CLP seat even by Palmerston standards, with successive members winning it without serious difficulty. This was further emphasised at the 2005 election, when Blain was one of only four CLP-held seats retained by the party after a landslide victory by the Labor Party, and the only CLP seat in the Darwin/Palmerston area.
Longtime CLP MP and Deputy Chief Minister Barry Coulter, who had represented Palmerston-area electorates since 1983 (Berrimah from 1983 to 1987 and Palmerston from 1987 to 1997) held this seat for the final term of his parliamentary career. He was succeeded by Terry Mills, who became a prominent member of the CLP frontbench after the CLP lost power for the first time in 2001. He eventually became CLP leader from 2003 to 2005, returning to the leadership in 2008. After narrowly losing the 2008 Territory election, he led the CLP to victory in 2012 and became Chief Minister.
Mills was deposed in a party-room coup less than a year later, and Nathan Barrett retained the seat for the CLP at the ensuing by-election despite a 10 percent swing.
Barrett was forced out of politics in 2016 after he sent a lewd video to a constituent. [1] At the 2016 election, the CLP was pushed into third place after its primary vote plummeted to 25 percent, losing more than half of its primary vote from 2012. The seat was nearly swept up in the massive Labor wave that swept through the metropolitan area. However, Mills, contesting his old seat as an independent, narrowly defeated former federal MP Damian Hale to return to the legislature. Mills founded the Territory Alliance party in November 2019, but was defeated at the 2020 election, with Mark Turner winning the seat for Labor. [2]
Member | Party | Term | |
---|---|---|---|
Barry Coulter | Country Liberal | 1997–1999 | |
Terry Mills | Country Liberal | 1999–2014 | |
Nathan Barrett | Country Liberal | 2014–2016 | |
Independent | 2016 | ||
Terry Mills | Independent | 2016–2019 | |
Territory Alliance | 2019–2020 | ||
Mark Turner | Labor | 2020–2021 | |
Independent Labor | 2021–2023 | ||
Independent | 2023–2024 | ||
Matthew Kerle | Country Liberal | 2024–present | |
Results as of 23:15 UTC, 24 August
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Country Liberal | Matthew Kerle | 1,334 | 47.8 | +14.9 | |
Independent | Mark Turner | 1,046 | 37.5 | +37.5 | |
Labor | Danielle Eveleigh | 409 | 14.7 | -27.0 | |
Total formal votes | 2,789 | 96.4 | +0.1 | ||
Informal votes | 105 | 3.6 | −0.1 | ||
Turnout | |||||
Two-candidate-preferred result | |||||
Country Liberal | Matthew Kerle | 1,473 | 52.8 | +3.0 | |
Independent | Mark Turner | 1,316 | 47.2 | +47.2 | |
Country Liberal gain from Labor | Swing | +3.0 |
The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP), commonly known as the Country Liberals, is a centre-right and conservative political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In territory politics, it operates in a two-party system with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It also contests federal elections as an affiliate of the Liberal Party of Australia and National Party of Australia, the two partners in the federal coalition.
The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method for the Assembly is the full-preferential voting system, having previously been optional preferential voting. Elections are on the fourth Saturday in August of the fourth year after the previous election, but can be earlier in the event of a no confidence vote in the government. The most recent election for the Legislative Assembly was the 2020 election held on 22 August. The next election is scheduled for 24 August 2024.
David William Tollner is an Australian politician. He was the Country Liberal Party member for Solomon in the Australian House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007, and then served in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly as the member for Fong Lim from 2008 to 2016. He was the Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory under chief minister Adam Giles from 2013 to 2014. During his time in federal parliament, he sat with the Liberal Party.
Brennan is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1990 as a replacement for the abolished seat of Ludmilla, and derives its name from Harold "Tiger" Brennan, a former member of the Legislative Council and Mayor of Darwin. Brennan includes both rural and urban areas, covering an area of 5 km2 and encompassing the Palmerston suburbs of Bakewell, Gunn, Farrar, as well as part of Rosebery. There were 5,746 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2020.
A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia, on 18 June 2005. The centre-left Labor Party, led by Chief Minister Clare Martin, won a second term with a landslide victory, winning six of the ten seats held by the opposition Country Liberal Party in the 25-member Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, bringing their total to 19. It was the second largest victory in any Northern Territory election. The only larger majority in the history of the Territory was in the first election, in 1974. In that contest, the CLP won 17 of the 19 seats in the chamber, and faced only two independents as opposition.
The Division of Solomon is an Australian Electoral Division in the Northern Territory. It is largely coextensive with the Darwin/Palmerston metropolitan area. The only other division in the territory, the Division of Lingiari, covers the remainder of the territory.
Damian Francis Hale is a former Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Solomon from 2007 to 2010. He moved to the Northern Territory in 1974 and grew up in Maningrida, Katherine and Darwin, with his teacher parents, Bob and Bev Hale.
Terence Kennedy Mills is an Australian politician. He served as chief minister of the Northern Territory from 2012 to 2013 and was leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) from 2003 to 2005 and 2008 to 2013.
General elections were held in the Northern Territory of Australia on 9 August 2008. Of the 25 seats in the Legislative Assembly, 23 were contested; two safe Labor seats were uncontested. The incumbent centre-left 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.
Adam Graham Giles is an Australian former politician and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (2013–2016) as well as the former leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament. Giles is the first Indigenous Australian to serve as a head of government in Australia.
Michael Patrick Francis Gunner is an Australian former politician who was the 11th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2016 to 2022. He was a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, holding the seat of Fannie Bay in Darwin from the retirement of then Chief Minister Clare Martin at the 2008 election until his resignation in July 2022.
The 2016 Northern Territory general election was held on Saturday 27 August 2016 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.
Lia Emele Finocchiaro is an Australian politician. She has been a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the seat of Spillett since her election in 2016. She became Leader of the Opposition in the Northern Territory after the resignation of Gary Higgins on 1 February 2020. She was previously the member for Drysdale from 2012 to 2016.
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.
Nathan Barrett is a former Australian politician who represented the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly seat of Blain from 2014 to 2016.
Spillett is a division of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in Australia. It was created in 2016, for the 2016 general elections, and surrounds Palmerston. It is named for Peter Spillett, a historian and former member of Darwin City Council.
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.
Territory Alliance was an Australian political party based in the Northern Territory. It was founded in 2019 by Terry Mills, an incumbent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. He had been elected as a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP).
Mark Paul Michael Turner is an Australian politician and former Northern Territory Police negotiator. He was elected as the Labor member for the electoral division of Blain in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly at the 2020 Northern Territory election.
The 2024 Northern Territory general election was held on 24 August 2024 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.