ALP 10.5% vs IND
Incumbent MP
Gerry McCarthy, since 2008.
Geography
Outback Northern Territory. Barkly covers a large part of the north-eastern outback, including Tennant Creek and Boroloola.
Redistribution
Barkly shifted south, losing its northern edge to Arnhem, and gaining territory in the south from Stuart and Namatjira. These changes increase the Labor margin from 8% to 10.5%.
History
The electorate of Barkly has existed since the first NT assembly election in 1974. The seat has been held by Labor since 1990.
The CLP’s Ian Tuxworth won Barkly at the first election in 1974. Tuxworth rose up through the CLP ranks and became chief minister in 1984. Tuxworth resigned as CLP leader and chief minister in 1986, and soon afterwards left the CLP to form the NT Nationals.
At the 1987 election, Tuxworth defeated independent candidate Maggie Hickey by only 19 votes, triggering a by-election, which he won against Hickey, now running for Labor.
A 1990 redistribution weakened Tuxworth’s position, and he unsuccessfully contested the neighbouring seat of Goyder instead. Barkly was won by Hickey.
Maggie Hickey went on to lead Labor from 1996 until 1999, and retired in 2001.
Hickey was succeeded by Elliot McAdam, who was a minister from 2005 to 2008, and retired at the 2008 election.
Labor’s Gerry McCarthy has held Barkly since 2008. McCarthy served as a minister in the Henderson government from 2009 to 2012, and again since 2016.
Candidates
Sitting Labor MP Gerry McCarthy is not running for re-election.
- Steven Edgington (Country Liberal)
- Daniel Mulholland (Independent)
- Gadrian Hoosan (Independent)
- Sid Vashist (Labor)
Assessment
Labor’s hold on Barkly will be weakened by McCarthy’s retirement.
2016 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Gerry McCarthy | Labor | 1,387 | 43.1 | -2.0 | 46.5 |
| Elliot McAdam | Independent | 869 | 27.0 | +27.1 | 21.3 |
| Tony Jack | Country Liberal | 595 | 18.5 | -17.7 | 19.1 |
| Jack Green | Independent | 367 | 11.4 | +11.4 | 9.0 |
| Others | 4.1 | ||||
| Informal | 53 | 1.6 |
2016 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Gerry McCarthy | Labor | 1,739 | 58.0 | +0.4 | 60.5 |
| Elliot McAdam | Independent | 1,257 | 42.0 | +42.0 | 39.5 |
Booth breakdown
Barkly includes two polling places, but a larger proportion of the vote was cast through mobile votes. Most of the pre-poll votes were cast at Tennant Creek.
Labor won a large 67.5% majority in the mobile vote, and smaller majorities in Tennant Creek and Borroloola.
| Voter group | ALP 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Mobile | 67.5 | 1,521 | 42.0 |
| Pre-poll | 54.5 | 1,205 | 33.3 |
| Other votes | 55.7 | 471 | 13.0 |
| Tennant Creek | 55.2 | 302 | 8.3 |
| Borroloola | 60.0 | 124 | 3.4 |
Unprecedented result here despite the retirement of the sitting member. a 20% swing or so despite the CLP not winning government seems very strange. would love an insight of this seat if anybody knows a thing why it swung so heavily
This is a tiny electorate with 8000 residents, so the voting proportion is even smaller.
The locals are deeply angry with the lack of long and short term answers to housing shortages, runaway arson and property crime by minors (300% increase in crime since 2015), declining business and population.
A swing of several hundred votes will register as a big shift in a place where the local candidates almost knows everyone by name.
they should rename it to Walkabout Creek for obvious reasons