ALP 11.7%
Incumbent MP
Lauren Moss, since 2014.
Geography
Northern Darwin. Casuarina covers suburbs in the outer north-west of Darwin, including Brinkin, Tiwi, Casuarina, Nakara, Lyons, Lee Point and part of Alawa.
Redistribution
Casuarina slightly expanded, taking in a small number of voters from Johnston and Wanguri. This increased the Labor margin from 11.3% to 11.7%.
History
The electorate of Casuarina has existed since the first NT assembly election in 1974. The CLP held the seat until 2001, and Labor have held it ever since.
The CLP’s Nick Dondas won Casuarina in 1974 and held the seat until 1994. He later represented the Northern Territory in the House of Representatives from 1996 until 1998.
Peter Adamson won Casuarina in 1994, beating future Labor chief minister Clare Martin.
Adamson lost Casuarina in 2001 to Labor’s Kon Vatskalis. Adamson later served as Lord Mayor of Darwin from 2002 to 2008.
Vatskalis was immediately appointed to the ministry, serving in the ministry until the government’s defeat in 2012.
Vatskalis resigned from parliament in 2014, and the subsequent by-election was won by Labor candidate Lauren Moss. Moss was re-elected in 2016, and joined the ministry after the election.
Candidates
- Danial Kelly (Territory Alliance)
- Kendall Trudgen (Greens)
- Tony Schelling (Country Liberal)
- Lauren Moss (Labor)
Assessment
This seat will probably stay in Labor hands.
2016 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Lauren Moss | Labor | 2,688 | 61.3 | +2.5 | 60.9 |
| Giovanna Webb | Country Liberal | 1,694 | 38.7 | -2.5 | 38.0 |
| Others | 1.1 | ||||
| Informal | 117 | 2.6 |
Booth breakdown
Casuarina contains two polling booths: Nakara and Tiwi. These two booths produced about one third of the total vote, with 45% cast via pre-poll.
Labor won a majority of the primary vote (there were only two candidates) in every part of the seat, with over 60% in both pre-poll and on election day. The CLP did slightly better in the other vote categories.
| Voter group | ALP prim % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Pre-poll | 62.2 | 2,100 | 45.0 |
| Other votes | 57.4 | 994 | 21.3 |
| Nakara | 64.7 | 976 | 20.9 |
| Tiwi | 61.9 | 599 | 12.8 |
Casuarina’s a seat I’ll be keeping a lazy eye on, just for the Green vote. Their candidate got 22% as an independent in Nhulunbuy in 2012, then worked for the independent who won in 2016. Whether any of that translates to suburban Darwin is anyone’s guess, but he seems to know what he’s doing. Good chance this’ll have the highest Green vote in the NT (as the usual winner of that, Nightcliff, has the AJP who’ll probably take a few % off the Greens there)