Incumbent Senators
- Trish Crossin (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 and 2004, 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 2007, the ALP gained a 5.3% swing. The Greens also polled their highest in 2007, with 8.8%, but still have no chance of winning a Senate seat in the Northern Territory any time soon.
2007 result
| Group | Votes | % | Swing | Quota |
| Labor | 47,205 | 46.94 | +5.57 | 1.4081 |
| Liberal | 40,253 | 40.03 | -5.37 | 1.2007 |
| The Greens | 8,870 | 8.82 | +1.22 | 0.2646 |
| Citizens Electoral Council | 2,019 | 2.01 | +2.01 | 0.0602 |
| Democrats | 1,949 | 1.94 | -2.79 | 0.0581 |
| Others | 273 | 0.27 | 0.0081 |
Both major parties held their seats with a quota on primary votes. No other candidates came close to challenging them for a seat.
Candidates
The Greens are standing indigenous singer/songwriter Warren H. Williams.
Political situation
Short of very dramatic circumstances, both major parties will retain their one Senator for the Northern Territory.
This report says that Tracey Nagle ‘will join the Senate ticket’ for the CLP, but it’s not clear if that means she’s getting the No. 1 spot or just the No. 2 spot.
Seranna Shutt is running for the Australian Sex Party.
If the Whiltlam Government had introduced 3 NT Senators rather than 2 then, the extra seat would have gone to the CLP 1975-84, ALP 1987-1998, CLP 2001 and the ALP 2004 onward.
This seems to be the one Senate seat in which the Greens are yet to announce a candidate. While there is no chance of a Green win in the NT they do poll well and with the nuclear waste dump issue and mining near Alice Springs I imagine they’d be looking for a good swing this time round. Any news on the ground?
Singer/songwriter Warren H Williams is the Greens candidate.
Here’s your chance to vote against parties that introduced the racist NT Intervention
The intervention targetted a problem area which just happened to be race specific. Millions of tax payer dollars have been spent on this race with the intent of improving the quality of life for these people. What is racist is the disproportionate government spending which is spent on this minority.