Incumbent Senators
- Nova Peris (ALP)
- Nigel Scullion (CLP)
History
The Northern Territory first elected Senators in 1975, when the Labor Party and the Country Liberal Party each won a single seat. Both parties have maintained this 1-1 split at every election since, with no serious challenge to this status quo.
The strongest ever minor party performance came in 1987, when the Northern Territory National Party, who were not endorsed by the federal Nationals, ran for the Senate and polled over 14%. This election saw the CLP fall below a quota (polling 32.5%) for the only time in three decades of Senate elections. The National Party never ran again for the Senate in the Northern Territory, and the CLP recovered to a primary vote above 40% in 1990. The 1987 election saw the ALP top the poll for the first time, and ever since then the party that won the federal election has topped the poll in the Northern Territory, with the CLP winning in 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2010; and the ALP coming first in 2007.
In 1998 the CLP fell below 40% for the second time when One Nation polled 9.3%, but they still safely won a quota.
In 2010, the ALP suffered a 12.6% swing against them. That vote was split between the Shooters and Fishers and the Sex Party, who hadn’t run before, and a 4.7% swing to the Greens.
Trish Crossin stepped down in 2013 after losing preselection to Nova Peris.
2013 result
| Group | Votes | % | Swing | Quota |
| Country Liberal | 42,781 | 41.3 | +0.7 | 1.2402 |
| Labor | 33,889 | 32.8 | -1.6 | 0.9825 |
| Greens | 8,974 | 8.7 | -4.9 | 0.2601 |
| Palmer United Party | 7,386 | 7.1 | +7.1 | 0.4998 |
| Shooters and Fishers | 2,814 | 2.7 | +1.8 | 0.0816 |
| Sex Party | 2,203 | 2.1 | -3.0 | 0.0639 |
| Australian Independents | 1,544 | 1.5 | +1.5 | 0.1043 |
| First Nations | 1,495 | 1.4 | +1.4 | 0.1008 |
| Rise Up Australia | 975 | 0.9 | +0.9 | 0.0658 |
| Uniting Australia Party | 656 | 0.6 | +0.6 | 0.0441 |
| Others | 762 | 0.7 | 0.0222 |
The Country Liberal Party won their seat with a quota. Labor fell just short of a quota, but easily retained their seat.
Candidates
- A – Jan Pile (Rise Up Australia)
- B – Andrew Kavasilas (HEMP/Sex Party)
- C – Trudy Campbell (Citizens Electoral Council)
- D – Michael Connard (Greens)
- E – Nigel Scullion (Country Liberal)
- F – Malarndirri McCarthy (Labor)
- G – Carol Ordish (Christian Democratic Party)
- Ungrouped
- TS Lee
- Tristan Marshall (Online Direct Democracy)
- Maurie Ryan
- Marney MacDonald (Antipaedophile)
- Greg Strettles
Assessment
The Northern Territory has always been the least interesting Senate race in the country: no result has come close to challenging the 1-1 Labor/Country Liberal split.
That will remain the case in 2016.
I believe Labor made the right choice in preselecting Malarndirri McCarthy… she has much more credibility than Peris