ALP 16.1%
Incumbent MP
Joel Bowden, since 2020.
Geography
North Darwin. Johnston covers the suburbs of Alawara, Millner and Moil, to the north of the airport.
Redistribution
Johnston shifted north, losing the remainder of Coconut Grove to Fannie Bay and gaining the remainder of Alawa from Casuarina.
History
The electorate of Johnston has existed since 2001, and has always been won by Labor.
Labor’s Chris Burns won Johnston in 2001. Burns was a minister in the Labor government from 2002 to 2012. He was re-elected in 2005 and 2008, and retired in 2012.
Labor’s Ken Vowles succeeded Burns in 2012. Vowles was re-elected in 2016. He served as a minister in the newly-elected Labor government but was sacked as a minister and kicked out of the Labor caucus in December 2018. He announced his retirement in November 2019.
Labor candidate Joel Bowden narrowly won the seat of Johnston at a February 2020 by-election. Bowden won a full term at the 2020 general election.
- Joel Bowden (Labor)
- Justine Davis (Independent)
- Gary Strachan (Country Liberal)
- Billie Barton (Greens)
Assessment
Johnston is a safe Labor seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist % |
| Joel Bowden | Labor | 1,940 | 45.3 | -7.7 | 46.0 |
| Gary Haslett | Country Liberal | 843 | 19.7 | -10.7 | 20.3 |
| Aiya Goodrich Carttling | Greens | 736 | 17.2 | +1.9 | 15.9 |
| Steven Klose | Territory Alliance | 626 | 14.6 | +14.6 | 15.0 |
| Josh Thomas | Independent | 139 | 3.2 | +3.2 | 2.9 |
| Informal | 150 | 3.4 |
2020 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist % |
| Joel Bowden | Labor | 2,850 | 66.5 | +0.8 | 66.1 |
| Gary Haslett | Country Liberal | 1,434 | 33.5 | -0.8 | 33.9 |
Booth breakdown
There were two ordinary booths used in 2020 in Johnston. Part of Casuarina City has been redistributed in with the remainder of Alawa from Casuarina.
The ALP polled around 72% in Millner and Casuarina City, and 62% in Moil.
A majority of the vote was cast at pre-poll booths, and Labor polled 65% of the two-party-preferred vote on the pre-poll vote.
| Voter group | ALP 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Pre-poll | 65.0 | 2,378 | 53.5 |
| Other votes | 67.9 | 832 | 18.7 |
| Moil | 62.4 | 655 | 14.7 |
| Millner | 72.3 | 437 | 9.8 |
| Casuarina City | 71.9 | 142 | 3.2 |
Polling places surrounding Johnston at the 2020 NT election
Feel like Bowden retains pretty comfortably, especially with Greens voters coming back to Labor with the Greens seemingly not bothering here, though I’m interested to see how the teal Justine Davis does.
@Oguh I agree of all the seats the CLP could pick up this isn’t one of them.
This is one seat where I think the CLP will come third. The Independent running – Justine Davis, seems to have good local support and should shake things up. Still expect ALP to hold.
What exactly is the demographic of these northern Darwin seats that makes them so strong for Labor?
I just assumed they were the poorer/working class/less desirable parts of Darwin…but I see several of the seats have a reasonably strong Green vote. So are they actually more ‘trendy’ Green-Labor inner city type demographics?
Most nth Darwin seats were lnp held prior to alp victories. Suggest alp was lucky to have competent local mps. maybe there is a pro Labor demographic change in the non Palmerston parts of Darwin
The 2012 NT general election was a classic case of political realignment. Terry Mills’ CLP won by winning remote seats off Labor by getting the support of Aboriginal people and they got a majority because they also swept the rest of the Territory. However, the CLP only won three seats in Darwin (Fong Lim, Port Darwin and Sanderson). In contrast, Labor only held two seats outside of Darwin (Barkly, which is now a CLP seat, and Nhulunbuy, which is now independent Yingiya Mark Guyula’s seat of Mulka).
Interesting to note that Gary Strachan who is running for the CLP in this electorate, ran for the seat of Port Darwin with Territory Alliance in the 2020 election
CLP HTV card:
1. CLP
2. Davis
3. Labor
4. Greens
If Justine Davis does well CLP preferences are going to favour her and she could potentially beat Labor if she finishes first or second.
Not sure who Greens have on their HTV but even if it’s Davis there will be a decent Green to ALP flow and some CLP to ALP leakage. Bowden should have enough to work with to hang on
@John the Greens have Davis second too, then Labor third and the CLP last.
Unclear depends upon order of exclusion