1990 Northern Territory general election

Northern Territory general election, 1990

27 October 1990 (1990-10-27)
All 25 seats of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
First party Second party   Leader Marshall Perron Terry Smith Party Country Liberal Labor Leader since 14 July 1988 19 August 1986 Leader's seat Fannie Bay Millner Last election 16 seats 6 seats Seats won 14 seats 9 seats Seat change 2 3 Percentage 48.8% 36.6% Swing 9.4 0.6
Chief Minister before election Marshall Perron Country Liberal Elected Chief Minister Marshall Perron Country Liberal

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.

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 Australian 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

Northern Territory general election, 27 October 1990 Legislative Assembly << 1987–1994 >>
Enrolled voters		82,261
Votes cast		67,117		Turnout	81.6%	+10.4%
Informal votes		2,081		Informal	3.1%	–1.0%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Country Liberal	31,758	48.8%	+9.4%	14	– 2
	Labor	23,827	36.6%	+0.6%	9	+ 3
	Independent	4,410	6.8%	–0.1%	2	± 0
	NT Nationals	3,060	4.7%	–13.1%	0	– 1
	Greens	1,981	3.0%	+3.0%	0	± 0
Total		65,036			25
Two-party-preferred
	Country Liberal	37,075	57.0%	–0.3
	Labor	27,961	43.0%	+0.3

Candidates

Sitting members are 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	David Sanderson	Peter Ivinson	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

References

• Northern Territory Electoral Commission