The draft federal electoral boundaries for the Northern Territory were published earlier today.
This redistribution is far less dramatic than the redistributions for the three big states that have just concluded. For a start, there is no change to the seat count – the redistribution was triggered by seven years passing since the last redistribution and thus no mini-redistribution would be required if the process isn’t finished prior to the federal election.
In addition, there are only two seats, and an extremely obvious solution to balance the enrolment in those two seats. Every single submission to the redistribution process proposed the same change, and that is exactly what has happened.
The seat of Solomon previously covered all of Darwin and most of the Palmerston council area, with the exception of the eastern edge of Palmerston, which was contained in Lingiari. That small part of Palmerston has been moved from Lingiari to Solomon, unifying the urban parts of the Darwin-Palmerston area in a single seat.
These changes cut the Labor margin in Solomon from 9.4% to 8.4%, and increased the Labor margin in Lingiari from 0.9% to 1.6%.
The primary votes have also changed in predictable ways. Labor’s primary vote is up 0.7% in Lingiari and down 0.7% in Solomon. The CLP is up 0.7% in Solomon and down 0.2% in Lingiari. The Greens vote is down from 14.8% to 14.5% in Solomon.
That’s it for now. My guides to Solomon and Lingiari have already been published based on the old boundaries. I will update those guides alongside the writing of guides for NSW, Victorian and WA seats after the Queensland election.
Ben, you’re right, there was really only one option that made sense, and I did fully expect this to be the result. Do we expect any objections at all, especially given I was the only person that even commented on suggestions. I feel like i should submit an objection, just to support the proposal.