Namatjira – NT 2020

CLP 0.6%

Incumbent MP
Chansey Paech (ALP), since 2016.

Geography
Central Australia, including parts of Alice Springs. The electorate stretches to the South Australian and Queensland border, but a majority of its electors live within the Alice Springs town borders, including Flynn, Larapinta, Undoolya, Ilparpa, Ross and Arumbera.

Redistribution
Namatjira was transformed from a primarily remote electorate into a primarily urban electorate, with a majority of its electorate sitting in the Alice Springs area. Namatjira gained Larapinta from Braitling and an area from Araluen. It lost everything west of the Stuart Highway to Gwoja (previously named Stuart) and northern parts of the seat to Barkly. By my estimate this cancels out the previous 8.5% margin for Labor, leaving the seat with a slim 0.6% margin for the CLP.

History
The electorate of Namatjira has existed since 2012, but was a new name for the seat of MacDonnell, which had been created for the first NT assembly election in 1974, and existed until it was renamed in 2012. MacDonnell usually elected Labor candidates, but had been won by the Country Liberal Party on a number of occasions.

MacDonnell was first won in 1974 by the CLP’s Dave Pollock. Pollock was defeated in 1977 by Labor’s Neville Perkins. Perkins was re-elected in 1980, and resigned in 1981.

Labor’s Neil Bell held MacDonnell from 1981 until 1997, when he was succeeded by the CLP’s John Elferink.

Elferink held MacDonnell for two terms, and served on the opposition frontbench after the CLP lost the 2001 election.

Elferink lost in 2005 to Labor’s Alison Anderson. Elferink later returned as member for Port Darwin from 2008, and currently serves as a minister in the Country Liberal government.

Anderson won re-election in 2008, but in 2009 she resigned from Labor. She ended up joining the Country Liberal Party in 2011, and was re-elected as the member for the renamed seat of Namatjira at the 2012 election.

Anderson ended up leaving the CLP and forming the Northern Territory branch of the Palmer United Party in 2014, along with two other indigenous MPs. The PUP project didn’t last long, and Anderson served the last two years of her term as an independent.

Anderson retired in 2016, and the seat was won by Labor’s Chansey Paech.

Candidates
Sitting Labor MP Chansey Paech is running for the neighbouring seat of Gwoja, which acquired a new name when it took on western parts of Namatjira.

• Tony Willis (Independent)
• Nikki McCoy (Greens)
• Sheralee Taylor (Labor)
• Bill Yan (Country Liberal)
• Catherine Satour (Federation)
• Matt Paterson (Territory Alliance)

Assessment
Namatjira’s new boundaries make the seat quite different to what it was in 2016. The seat is very close and will likely be in play.

2016 result

2016 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown
Post-redistribution, there are three booths in this seat: Alice Springs, Larapinta and Yirara.

Labor won a massive 73% majority on the mobile vote and then lost every other vote category. The CLP’s two-party-preferred vote ranged from 51.8% in Alice Springs to 65.1% on the pre-poll vote.