Casuarina is an

electoral division An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

. It was first created in 1974 and was named after the adjacent suburb of

Casuarina ''Casuarina'' is a genus of 17 tree species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and eastern Africa. It was once treated as the sole genus in the fami ...

. Casuarina is an entirely urban electorate, covering only 12 km² and taking in the suburbs of Brinkin, Nakara, Tiwi and part of Alawa, as well as the

Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with a main campus in Darwin and eight satellite campuses in some metropolitan and regional areas. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Territory University, ...

. There were 5,647 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2020. For the first three decades of its existence, Casuarina, like most seats in the Darwin area, was a stronghold for the

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 ...

Clare Martin Clare Majella Martin (born 15 June 1952) is a former Australian journalist and politician. She was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995. She was appointed Opposition Leader in 1999, and won ...

did nearly manage to take the seat for the Labor Party upon the retirement of long-serving CLP member

Nick Dondas Nicholas Manuel Dondas (born 26 October 1939) is a former Country Liberal politician in the Northern Territory, Australia, representing the seat of Casuarina in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1974 to 1994, and the Division o ...

in 1994, but lost out to the CLP's Peter Adamson, who held the seat for the next seven years. It was still widely presumed to be a safe Liberal seat in 2001, when it unexpectedly fell to Labor challenger

Kon Vatskalis Konstantine Vatskalis (born 4 April 1957) is a Greek- Australian politician and the current Lord Mayor of Darwin. Before becoming Lord Mayor in 2017 he was a Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from September 200 ...

as part of Labor's sweep of the northern suburbs that year en route to winning government for the first time. Vatskalis easily retained the seat in 2005, 2008, and 2012. He resigned on 18 September 2014, which triggered 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 ...

. It was won by Labor candidate

Lauren Moss Lauren Jane Moss (born 6 May 1987) is an Australian politician. She has been the Labor member for Casuarina in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since a by-election held on 18 October 2014 to replace Kon Vatskalis. She is the youngest ...

with a reduced margin. Moss picked up enough of a swing in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

to make Casuarina much more secure for Labor, and consolidated her hold on the seat in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

; the CLP now needs a swing of 15.9 percent to win it.

Members for Casuarina

Election results

References

External links

Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission
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