Namatjira 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 created in 2012 when the former division of MacDonnell was renamed after the Aboriginal artist

Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira (born Elea Namatjira; 28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the greatest and most influential Australian artists. As a pioneer of cont ...

. Namatjira is an almost entirely rural electorate, covering 198,384 km², and taking in the resort town of

Yulara Yulara is a town in the southern region of the Northern Territory, Australia. It lies as an unincorporated enclave within MacDonnell Region. At the , Yulara had a permanent population of 1,099, in an area of . It is by road from World Heritag ...

, the remote communities of

Hermannsburg Hermannsburg is a village and a former municipality in the Celle district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Südheide. It has been a state-recognised resort town since 1971. It is situated on the river ...

, Kintore and

Papunya Papunya (Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian art, ...

, and part of southern

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

. There were 5,728 electors enrolled in Namatjira as of August 2020. The seat's first member,

Alison Anderson Alison Nampitjinpa Anderson (born 28 January 1958) is an Australian politician. She was member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly between 2005 and 2016, representing the electorate of Namatijra (known as MacDonnell until 2012). Cu ...

, the former

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 ...

-turned-independent-turned- Country Liberal (CLP) member for MacDonnell, won the seat handily at the 2012 Territory election amid a large swing to the CLP in the remote portions of the Territory. Anderson left the CLP in 2014, and briefly served as Territory leader of the

Palmer United Party The United Australia Party (UAP), formerly known as Clive Palmer's United Australia Party and the Palmer United Party (PUP), is a currently deregistered Australian political party formed by mining magnate Clive Palmer in April 2013. The party ...

before serving out the rest of her term as an independent. Anderson did not contest the 2016 election. Despite her previously fraught relations with Labor, she endorsed the Labor candidate in the seat, Alice Springs councillor

Chansey Paech Chanston James "Chansey" Paech (pronounced "CHAN-see PAKE"; born 1987) is an Australian politician. He is a Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2016, representing the electorate of Namatjira until 2020 and E ...

. Although a redistribution seemingly consolidated the CLP majority in the seat by pushing it into Alice Springs, most commentators believed Anderson's endorsement, combined with the CLP's lackluster polling numbers, made Namatjira a likely Labor gain. Paech took the seat on a swing of over 29 percent—large albeit not the largest at the election—amid Labor's landslide victory that year. However, a redistribution erased Paech's majority and made Namatjira notionally a marginal CLP seat. Paech switched to the neighbouring seat of

Gwoja Gwoja is an electoral division of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in Australia. It was created in a 2019 redistribution for the 2020 general election, replacing the electoral division of Stuart. The division is named after Gwoya Tj ...

(formerly Stuart) at the 2020 election, and the CLP candidate Bill Yan regained the seat for his party.

Members for Namatjira

Election results

References

External links

Division profile from the Northern Territory Electoral Commission
{{coord, 23, 13, S, 131, 54, E, display=title Namatjira