Spillett is a division of the

Northern Territory Legislative Assembly 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 f ...

in Australia. It was created in 2016, for the 2016 general elections, and surrounds

Palmerston Palmerston may refer to: People * Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer * Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston ** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman an ...

. It is named for Peter Spillett, a historian and former member of

Darwin City Council The City of Darwin is a local government area of the Northern Territory, Australia. It includes the central business district of the capital, Darwin City, and represents two-thirds of its metropolitan population. The City covers an area of a ...

. Historically, Palmerston has been a stronghold for the conservative

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 ...

. However, Spillett is based on a particularly conservative portion of Palmerston. It was created with a notional CLP majority of 17.9 percent, making it on paper the CLP's safest seat.

History

Before the election

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 then-CLP member for Drysdale, opted to transfer to Spillett after much of her old base was redistributed there. She defeated former Treasurer

Dave Tollner David William Tollner (born 31 January 1966) is an Australian politician. He was the Country Liberal Party member for Solomon in the Australian House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007, and then served in the Northern Territory Legislative Ass ...

for preselection; Tollner had contested Spillett after his old seat of Fong Lim saw most of its more conservative sections transferred to Spillett, resulting in Fong Lim becoming extremely marginal. Finocchiaro weathered the massive

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

wave that swept through the Territory at the 2016 election—a wave that saw Labor win her old seat of Drysdale on a large swing. In the end, Finocchiaro proved to be in the least danger of the CLP's elected members. She was the only CLP member to win a majority of the primary vote, and went on to win with only a small two-party swing against her. This left Spillett as the only CLP seat in the metropolitan area, and the only safe CLP seat in the legislature. After the election, Finocchiaro was named deputy leader of what remained of the CLP, and hence Deputy Leader of the Opposition. She then became Leader of the Opposition after

Gary Higgins Gary John Higgins (born 26 May 1954) is an Australian former politician. A member of the Country Liberal Party, he was elected to represent the seat of Daly in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly at the 2012 election. After the 2016 e ...

's retirement in 2020.

Demographics

A large portion of voters in Spillett are military personnel, with the electorate being home to both

Darwin International Airport Darwin International Airport is the busiest airport serving the Northern Territory and the tenth busiest airport in Australia. It is the only airport serving Darwin. The airport is located in Darwin's northern suburbs, from Darwin cit ...

and the

RAAF Base Darwin RAAF Base Darwin is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) military air base located in the city of Darwin, in the Northern Territory, Australia. The base shares its runway with Darwin International Airport, for civil aviation purposes. The herit ...

, which are both in the suburb of Eaton. https://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/labor-on-track-for-landslide-win-in-nt-election/news-story/2f05cc0cfb5a5b000b21dca80f64b3dc

Members for Spillett

Election results

References

External links

Division Profile at the Northern Territory Electoral Commission
Spillett 2016 establishments in Australia Constituencies established in 2016 {{NorthernTerritory-geo-stub