The 2024 Northern Territory general election is scheduled to be held on 24 August 2024 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

Northern Territory Parliament The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, each elected in single-member electorates for four-year terms. The voting method fo ...

. Members will be elected through full preferential instant-runoff voting in single-member electorates. The incumbent centre-left Labor Party (ALP) majority

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

, currently led by

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Natasha Fyles Natasha Kate Fyles (born 26 May 1978)Natasha Fyles
''Territory Women'', Northern Ter ...

, will attempt to win a third consecutive four-year term of government. It will be challenged by the centre-right

Country Liberal Party The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP) is a centre-right political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In local politics it operates in a two-party system with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It also contests federal ...

(CLP) opposition, currently led by

Opposition Leader The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

Lia Finocchiaro Lia Emele Finocchiaro (; born 20 September 1984) is an Australian politician. She has been a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the seat of Spillett since her election in 2016. She became Leader of ...

. The election will be conducted by the

Northern Territory Electoral Commission The Northern Territory Electoral Commission (NTEC) is an independent government agency of the Government of the Northern Territory with responsibility for the conduct of elections An election is a formal group decision-making process ...

Background

In the event both current leaders remain in place, this will be the first election in the Northern Territory where both major political parties are led by women, and the third in any Australian state or territory after the 1995 ACT election and 2020 Queensland election.

Previous election

At the 2020 election, the Labor government led by Chief Minister Michael Gunner was re-elected with a reduced majority, winning 14 of the 25 seats in the parliament. The Country Liberals (CLP) won 8 seats, whilst the

Territory Alliance Territory Alliance is an Australian political party based in the Northern Territory. It was founded in 2019 by Terry Mills, an incumbent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. H ...

party won 1 seat and a further 2 seats were won by independents.

Parliamentary composition

Robyn Lambley Robyn Jane Lambley (born 26 January 1965) is an Australian politician. She is an independent member representing the division of Araluen in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, having been first elected in a 2010 by-election as a membe ...

, the Territory Alliance's sole representative in the parliament, left the party in October 2020 to sit as an independent. Labor MLA Mark Turner was expelled from the party-room caucus in February 2021 due to what he acknowledged as an "inappropriate relationship" with a Labor Party staffer, though he remained a Labor-designated member in the assembly. A

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

was held for the seat of

Daly Daly or DALY may refer to: Places Australia * County of Daly, a cadastral division in South Australia * Daly River, Northern Territory, a locality * Electoral division of Daly, an electorate in the Northern Territory * Daly, Northern Territory, ...

on 11 September 2021, caused by the resignation of CLP member Ian Sloan due to health and personal issues. Labor candidate

Dheran Young Dheran Young is an Australian Labor politician who currently serves as MLA for Daly in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory is the unicameral legislature of the Northern Territory of ...

won the seat, the first time that an incumbent government has won a seat from the opposition in the history of the Legislative Assembly. On 10 May 2022, Chief Minister and Labor leader Michael Gunner announced his immediate resignation from both positions, citing his desire to spend more time with his family following the birth of his and his wife's second son on 29 April. Following a party-room meeting on 13 May, Labor minister

Natasha Fyles Natasha Kate Fyles (born 26 May 1978)Natasha Fyles
''Territory Women'', Northern Ter ...

was elected unopposed to the leadership, and was sworn in as the new Chief Minister later day. Gunner resigned from the seat of Fannie Bay on 27 July and a

was held on 20 August 2022. Labor retained the seat at the by-election, with candidate

Brent Potter Brent Potter is an Australian politician, representing the electoral division of Fannie Bay in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 20 August 2022. Career Before his political career, Potter worked in the Australian Army, during wh ...

victorious despite recording a 7 per cent swing against the party. On 17 December 2022, Labor MP for

Electoral division of Arafura Arafura is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1983, and takes its name from the Arafura Sea, which adjoins the electorate. The electorate is predominantly rural, encompass ...

Lawrence Costa Lawrence Costa (1969/1970 – 17 December 2022) was an Australian politician. He was the Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2016 until his death in 2022, representing the electorate of Arafura. He was of Tiwi des ...

died. This lead to a by-election which will be held on March 18 2023.

Election date

The parliament has fixed four-year terms, with elections to be held on the fourth Saturday of August every four years.

Pre-election pendulum

References

External links

Northern Territory Electoral Commission
Elections in the Northern Territory

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

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