Electoral division of Drysdale

Drysdale Northern Territory—Legislative Assembly
Location of Drysdale in the Darwin/Palmerston area
Territory	Northern Territory
Created	1997
MP	Eva Lawler
Party	Labor Party
Namesake	Fred Drysdale
Electors	5,828 (2020)
Area	5 km2 (1.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Urban

Drysdale is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1997, and is named after Fred Drysdale, a former member of the Legislative Council. It is an urban electorate covering 5 km² in north-western Palmerston including the CBD and the suburbs of Driver, Gray, Yarrawonga and most of Moulden. There were 5,828 people enrolled within the electorate as of August 2020.

Palmerston has long been considered a conservative stronghold, and for the first eight years of its life, Drysdale was considered to be a safe seat for the Country Liberal Party. CLP candidate Stephen Dunham easily won the seat at the 1997 election and holding it at the 2001 election.

Most commentators predicted that the CLP's dominance in Drysdale would continue at the 2005 election, although the Labor Party were running a high-profile candidate, former AFL Northern Territory general manager Chris Natt. However, there was a significant swing to the ALP across the territory on election day, and Dunham was ultimately defeated, along with several other CLP sitting members. The final result took several days to be decided, but ultimately Natt won the seat on a swing of 17.5 percent. Even more surprisingly, he won enough primary votes to take the seat without the need for preferences. However, before the 2008 election, a redistribution erased Natt's majority and made Drysdale a notional CLP seat. Ross Bohlin regained the seat for the CLP on a large swing, but lost his preselection in 2012 and contested the election as an independent candidate. He was defeated by the CLP's endorsed candidate, Lia Finocchiaro.

After a redistribution transferred much of Finocchiaro's base to the new seat of Spillett, Finocchiaro opted to transfer to Spillett even though Drysdale was still a safe CLP seat on paper. However, at the 2016 election, the CLP's primary vote plunged by over 20 percent amid the party's near-total meltdown in Palmerston. Eva Lawler took the seat for Labor on a large swing, becoming only the second Labor member ever to win it.

Members for Drysdale

Member		Party	Term
	Stephen Dunham	Country Liberal	1997–2005
	Chris Natt	Labor	2005–2008
	Ross Bohlin	Country Liberal	2008–2012
		Independent	2012–2012
	Lia Finocchiaro	Country Liberal	2012–2016
	Eva Lawler	Labor	2016–present

Election results

See also: Electoral results for the division of Drysdale

2016 Northern Territory general election: Drysdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Eva Lawler	1,593	41.0	+9.1
	Country Liberal	Ben Hosking	1,341	34.5	−20.3
	Independent	Lyle Mackay	395	10.2	+10.2
	Greens	Hayden Bray	250	6.4	+6.4
	1 Territory	David Cartwright	165	4.2	+4.2
	Independent	Margy Kerle	141	3.6	+3.6
Total formal votes			3,885	97.2	+0.5
Informal votes			111	2.8	−0.5
Turnout			3,996	73.2	+0.9
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Eva Lawler	1,964	55.2	+16.6
	Country Liberal	Ben Hosking	1,597	44.8	−16.6
	Labor gain from Country Liberal		Swing	+16.6

External links

• Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission