A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday August 30, 1997, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP). Shane Stone continued as Chief Minister. During the previous term, the CLP had lost the seat of Fannie Bay to Labor in a by-election. The CLP did not win the seat back, but managed to take MacDonnell from Labor and Nelson from Independent

Noel Padgham-Purich Cecilia Noel Padgham-Purich (born 25 December 1927) is a former Australian politician. She was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1977 to 1997, representing Tiwi until 1983, Koolpinyah until 1990 and Nelson thereafte ...

Retiring MPs

Labor

* Neil Bell MLA ( MacDonnell)

Country Liberal

Fred Finch Frederick Arthur Finch (16 June 1945 – 12 November 2018) was an Australian politician, a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1983 to 1997, representing Wagaman until 1987 and Leanyer thereafter. ...

MLA ( Leanyer) * Rick Setter MLA ( Jingili)

Independent

MLA ( Nelson)

Results

Candidates

Sitting members are listed in bold. Successful candidates are highlighted in the relevant colour.

Seats changing hands

Post-election pendulum

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. The pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in the Legislative Assembly according to the

percentage point A percentage point or percent point is the unit (measurement), unit for the Difference (mathematics), arithmetic difference between two percentages. For example, moving up from 40 percent to 44 percent is an increase of 4 percentage points, but a ...

margin they are held by on a two-party-preferred basis. This is also known as the

swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing rid ...

required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted.

References

Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Territory General Election, 1997 1997 elections in Australia Elections in the Northern Territory 1990s in the Northern Territory August 1997 events in Australia